JEWISH COMMUNITY AND BUSINESS

Jews and Tvaruzky Cheese of Lostice

Lostice are renown for their tvaruzky cheese throughout the country and abroad. This unique cheese has been enjoyed by rich and poor for centuries. The term tvaruzky surfaced in written sources from the end of 16th century. By the 18th century tvaruzky cheese was a well known delicacy and became an important business commodity. A record of Schindler's tvaruzky cheese manufacture in Hnevotin near Olomouc dates from 1790. During the 19th century Hnevotin was the center of tvaruzky cheese manufacturing, but in the 20th century Lostice became the foremost producer. Information regarding the first Lostice cheese makers is based on oral history. According to these sources a trade secret came to the town in two waves in the second half of the 19th century. Anna Sekaninova is considered the godmother of Lostice tvaruzky cheese manufacturing. She was familiar with the process since she came from the Schindler family in Hnevotin.

"The widow with five children, who knew the secret of making this really popular food was brought to Lostice by a merchant named Friedman, who was apparently of Jewish religion. He combined the entrepreneurial spirit of his race with the experience of the mother Sekaninova and became one of the founders of the Lostice tvaruzky cheese tradition."

A. Lang: Vypraveni o tvaruzkach. In: Severni Morava 4, Sumperk 1959, p. 13

A stocking-knitter and carter Josef Wessels also learned the secret in Hnevotin and started the successful operation in Lostice during 1876. From the beginning the cheese was transported to buyers by carriers or by horse drawn wagons. A later use of the railway increased the number of customers, which were located for instance in Brno, Prague and Vienna, also in Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, Turkey etc. During the 1920s and 1930s there were approximately 17 tvaruzky cheese makers in Lostice. About third of them were Jewish, who operated small to medium family businesses. Primary Jewish tvaruzky cheese makers were: Eckstein, Klein, Wischnitzer and Langer.

Jewish firms were closed by the Nazis and remaining operations were nationalized after 1948. Presently the tradition and fame of the Lostice tvaruzky cheese is being kept alive by the successor of Josef Wessels - company A.W. spol. s r. o.

EMIL LANGER
Lostice circa 1920
Sun drying of the tvaruzky cheese on wooden boards called shingles. Langer started his cheese business in 1910. Emil, his wife Flora and their daughters perished in the concentration camp in 1942.

Marketing Materials, Lostice around 1930

Tannery – L. Ehrlich

 

„Tvaruzky Cheese” Manufacturing – S. Ekstein

 

Butter and Egg Trade – E. Knöpflmacher