Hitler’s “Museum of an Extinct Race”

HITLER’S “MUSEUM OF AN EXTINCT

RACE”

Tamara Bonet

THE IDEA

Hitler wanted to create a “memory” of the Jewish

people

It was to hold items belonging to the Jews

Josefov (The Jewish Quarter), was the Prague

Ghetto during that time

1852, the Ghetto was abolished and made a district

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

1938: Became Hitler’s target for annexation

During WWII Czechoslovakia didn’t exsist, leaving

separate states of Protectorate Bohemia, Slovak

Republic, and Moravia of the Third Reich

1940: Jews were forbidden to withdraw more than

1,500 crowns a week, no interest was allowed to be

earned,

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

Gold, silver, platinum and jewellery were sold at discount

to Hadega (special company dealing in Jewish property).

Jews were excluded from the movie and theatre

industries.

Restricted to the back of the second car on Prague trams

Excluded from hotels (except Fiser and Star).

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

1941, The Jews were forced out of their

apartments and moved to less-attractive locations

Slowly but surely, the Jews were leaving Prague,

and moved to Poland.

THE MUSEUM

The Jewish Museum: exhibits in four old Synagogues and

the Ceremonial Hall

The Old Jewish Cemetery (included) extends from Pinkas

Synagogue to the rear of the Ceremonial Hall and the

Klausen Synagogue.

The Jewish Museum has collections of Jewish art, textiles

and silver in the world; 40,000 exhibits and 100,000 books.

Everything was gathered from Bohemia and Moravia

THE MUSEUM

Dr. Stein proposed to the Germans to set up a

museum to hold what the Nazis confiscated in

Bohemia and Moravia.

Nazis approved the project

1942: the Central Jewish Museum was created

PRESS

“This was extermination on an industrial scale and it involved huge

numbers of people. Neighbors and employers reported Jews to the

Gestapo. Bureaucrats processed notices of deportation. Postmen served

them. Railway staff marshaled their departure. Others drove the trains

and manned the signals. It was all logically and legally planned in an

inversion of all the values on which human civilization had been built. So

perverse was it that Hitler ordered the collection of 200,000 Jewish

artifacts, which were photographed and catalogued to be displayed at the

end of the war as a trophy case of archaeological remains. It was to be

called The Museum of an Extinct Race.”

WORKS CITED

"Jewish Life in Prague

Http://www.HolocaustResearchProject.org." N.p., 2007.

Web. 04 July 2012.

"The Independent." The Independent. Independent

Digital News and Media, 05 Sept. 2010. Web. 11 July

2012. Web.

The Jewish Museum in Josefov in Prague, Photo of Old-

New Synagogue. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 July 2012.