Mladá fronta DNES
Monday, August 29, 2011

Reminiscence in the Synagogue - the Loštice Rabbi Asriel Günzig, Our Grandfather.

Loštice: Almost hundred years ago their grandfather spoke as a rabbi during the service in the Loštice synagogue for the last time. Yesterday his grandsons scattered around the world returned to celebrate with other people reopening of the synagogue, which went through the five years reconstruction period. In the late 1980s officials prepared plans to demolish the building. It was close, but local people were openly and strongly against the demolition and therefore the synagogue was saved.

“It is with enormous emotion that I speak to you in this synagogue today, almost a century after my grandfather, the rabbi of Loštice, Israel Günzig,” said with certain emotion his grandson Edgard Gunzig to the crowd in the synagogue.

Grandsons of the last Loštice rabbi, who moved out from the region in 1920, came to Loštice from Belgium, United States and Israel. “It is almost hundred years, since he stood here and I am very glad that the synagogue resisted the Holocaust and was saved”, said the man, whose hands were bit trembling. But his voice was firm.

The latest restoration phase of the synagogue, which was founded in the 18th century, started in 2006. “We got the money for the first time in 2006 and we used them to fix the leaking roof,” said Luděk Štipl from the Respect and Tolerance Foundation. Members of the foundation took part in organizing the renovation of this Jewish site.
From about sixty Jews sent in 1942 to Theresienstadt and other concentration camps only three survived and returned back to Loštice. Therefore the Jewish Community in Loštice was not renewed. During WWII the synagogue was used as a storage for the Wehrmacht and after the liberation it was used as storage of furniture, hey etc.  In the early 1960s the building was reconstructed and used as a museum of ceramics and as a music school. In 1980s the synagogue was empty and its structure was deteriorating.

We have no desire to turn the synagogue to another tourist attraction. We hope to renew some of its original purposes and use it as a place of meeting and learning. For that reason we opened here for instance a library consisting of about a thousand books.

A strong emotional moment came when Hebrew songs sounded in the renovated interior. However, not only musicians sang songs. Many people in the crowd sang as well. When the Israeli anthem was sung, one of women raised her hand. “It symbolizes our thanks to God,” she later explained.

Jews Were Persecuted by the Nazis and Communists as Well
By Michal Poláček


Hebrew melodies sounded in the Loštice synagogue and I was shivering. How long it will take before all wounds caused by WWII will be healed? Here, after more than 60 years people restored a shrine of a community, which lost six million souls.

“In spite of the Holocaust there was possible to pick up the threads of the spirit of Jewish life, which is an intimate part of your nation,” said Edgard Gunzig, a Belgian professor and grandson of the last Loštice rabbi. However, there is a question in my mind: Why this spirit cold not be revived long time before? After all WWII ended many years ago. The answer is simple. Many things which the Nazis trampled, the Communists, who came to power thanks to them, left untouched. During the Communist era Jewish people were also afraid to acknowledge their identity. Only when a posthumous child of the Communist party in our parliament will officially renounce its past, this period could be considered morally redressed.