What is Theresienstadt?

Theresienstadt was a nazi holding pen in Czechoslovakia. It served as a transit camp for Czech Jews whom the Germans deported to killing centers, concentration camps, and forced-labor camps in German-occupied Poland, Belorussia, and the Baltic States. It was a ghetto-labor camp to which the SS deported and then incarcerated certain categories of German, Austrian, and Czech Jews, based on their age, disability as a result of past military service, or domestic celebrity in the arts and other cultural life. Third, Theresienstadt served as a holding pen for Jews in the above-mentioned groups.

Today, on 27 Iyar in 1945, the Theresienstadt concentration camp was liberated. From Aish.com:

Theresienstadt was not a death camp by the usual definition. It was the center of a Nazi PR ploy -- a mythic, idyllic city that was supposedly built to protect Jews from the vagaries and stresses of the war. The Red Cross was once allowed to visit Theresienstadt, which was spruced up for the occasion; inmates were dressed up and baked goods suddenly filled the shelves. (The Red Cross concluded that the Jews were being well-treated.)

In reality, starvation and disease proved rampant. Of the 200,000 people (mostly Czech Jews) who passed through its gates, thousands died of malnutrition and exposure, and others were sent to Auschwitz.

Czech neo-Nazis end march through Plzen

From CTK:

About 150-200 Czech neo-Nazis reached the namesti Republiky square where the rally was to end after a 60-minute march through the West Bohemian town of Plzen this afternoon, the police said.

However, upon an agreement with the police about one half of them will be driven by buses to the railway station and the rest will march back to the bus station from where they had left.

No incident has occurred during their march, although the neo-Nazis walked passed a rally of about 500 anti-fascists.

Anarchists pelted the neo-Nazis with empty bottles and apples.

The two groups were separated by the riot police.

The neo-Nazis' march was preceded by speeches attacking the current regime. Neo-Nazi activists accused the police and political establishment of harassing and terrorising them.

The marchers were wearing black flags and some of them covered their faces with masks.

The march was originally scheduled for January 19, one day after the 66th anniversary of the first transport of Jews from Plzen to concentration camps. The Plzen Town Hall banned the march, but a court later ruled that the ban was not invalid and that the organiser had the right to stage a new march.

Extremism experts say the march is organised by the neo-Nazi National Resistance.

Click here to see the video. The Jewish community did not receive a permit for a counter demonstration, citing concern for safety, and the Jewish community officially asked members to stay away. Despite the warnings and inclement weather, more than 500 protestors were on hand, as were more than 1,000 police.

Pilsen [Czech Republic] braces - again – for neo-Nazi march

From CeskyRozhlas/ Radio Prague:

For the second time this year, the city of Plzen in West Bohemia is bracing itself for a march by neo-Nazi skinheads. As many as 400 skinheads will march down a route that takes them past Plzen's Great Synagogue, the second largest in Europe. Efforts to ban the march have exhausted all legal avenues; the authorities are now concentrating on keeping groups of skinheads and anti-Nazi protestors apart. And politicians are looking to how future marches can be avoided without curtailing the freedom of speech.

Plzeò mayor faces dilemma as neo-Nazis plan new march past synagogue

The Czech Republic must test its own moral compass. From Cesky Rozhlas/Radio Praha:

The Czech Republic's freedom of speech and assembly laws have been tested to the full in recent months by a small but determined group of neo-Nazis. For the second time this year, the city of Plzeò in West Bohemia is bracing itself for a march by far-right radicals, and politicians are wondering whether it might not be time to prune the country's legislation to prevent such marches from going ahead.

Pavel Rödl is a man with a problem. He's the mayor of Plzeò, the regional capital of West Bohemia, home to the famous Pilsner Urquell brewery and also the second largest synagogue in Europe. On January 19th, 66 years after the first transport of Plzeò Jews to the concentration camps, a group of neo-Nazis wanted to march past the synagogue. There was an outcry, and Mayor Rödl banned the march. 1,000 police officers were deployed and people were advised to stay home. In the end a dozen or so skinheads turned up and nothing happened.

The group filed a complaint. On Friday, a court ruled the march should have gone ahead. The mayor had effectively broken the law guaranteeing free assembly. The group says it will hold another rally, on March 1st. Once again they want to march past the synagogue. Once again, Pavel Rödl has to weigh up whether to break the law.

The dilemma has sparked a debate among politicians as to whether Czech legislation should be changed to deny neo-Nazis the freedom of assembly. Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek had this to say to Czech television:

"If it's possible to hold neo-Nazi marches in this way and if the law allows them and if the law even criminalises those who have the courage to try and ban them…then clearly we have to examine the way the law is written."

But comments like that are anathema even to some in Mr Topolánek's own party, the Civic Democrats. Czechs paid dearly for the freedom of speech and assembly, for so long denied them by the communists. Marek Benda is a Civic Democrat MP and son of the late dissident Václav Benda:

"I'm just really afraid that an amendment to the law would be abused – in other words that we'd end up banning more things than we should."

So it seems unlikely the law will be changed. Indeed some politicians argue the present legislation is more than adequate, if applied correctly. For now, all eyes are on Pavel Rödl and whether he'll wield his power to ban another neo-Nazi meeting on March 1st.

Police prepare for Nov 17 demonstrations in Prague

Dr. Samuel L. Blumenfeld says that "the Europeans forget that it was American power that saved them from their own self-destruction and that American armed forces are still stationed in Germany 60 years after the end of World War II. They can afford to be pacifists because they expect America to do the fighting for them. But America cannot give them the babies to halt the depopulation of Europe or stem the Muslim invasion." I add, every nation will be accountable to HaShem. Righteous citizens of Czechoslovakia, take heed. From the Czech News Agency:

Eight hundred police officers and city policemen will be on alert in Prague on the public holiday of November 17 due to a demonstration planned by the Jew-hating group called Autonomous Nationalists and other events to be held in Prague, Prague police spokesman Jiri Wolf told CTK Wednesday.

The Autonomous Nationalists have announced the event will be "the last farewell to freedom of speech," referring to the police intervention against the neo-Nazi march last weekend.

Participants in the event at Palackeho namesti square are to arrive dressed in black, preferably with wreaths, candles, flowers and black flags.

The Anonymous Nationalists' event on November 17, the public holiday commemorating the start of the Velvet Revolution that led to the overthrow of the Communist regime in 1989, is to be held at Prague's Palackeho square, called Prague Hydepark, where events can take place without any official permission.

Neo-Nazis, anti-fascists clash in Prague's Jewish quarter

From Ynet:

Neo-Nazis trying to march through the Jewish quarter of Prague on Saturday clashed with self-proclaimed anti-fascists, and at least 80 people were arrested in outbreaks of violence around the capital. The march had been scheduled to take place just a day after the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the 1938 night of terror when the Nazis attacked synagogues and Jewish homes and businesses throughout Germany and parts of Austria.

Police also seized weapons including a gas gun, axes and sticks at scattered sites as the extremists tried to reach the Jewish quarter, police spokesman Ladislav Bernasek said.

The organizers were the Young National Democrats, which is linked to the National Resistance, a neo-Nazi group. They said their intention was to protest the deployment of Czech troops in Iraq and they pledged to defy the ban.

Vandals defile ancient Jewish cemetery in S. Czech Republic

A Jewish cemetery has been desecrated in a southern Czech town, police said Friday. Spokeswoman Hana Moltasova said in a statement that 23 tombstones were overturned at the cemetery in Pisek, 100 kilometers south of Prague. Five of the tombstones were broken, she said. The cemetery, dating back to the 19th century, is no longer used for burials, and was opened to the public in 1993 after renovations. Two weeks ago, vandals defiled a Holocaust memorial at a Berlin train station, where tens of thousands of Jews were once shipped to Nazi concentration camps.