Das jüdische Zentralmuseum der SS in Prag
Gegnerforschung und Völkermord im Nationalsozialismus
Description:... In the context of "knowledge of the enemy", various Nazi organizations established research and schooling centers on Judaism. Alfred Rosenberg, in particular, competed with the SS for books and other materials plundered from the occupied territories. Describes the organization of the Nazi regime in the Czech Protectorate and the SS Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung (later Zentralamt für die Regelung der Judenfrage) under Hans Günther. The Jewish Ältestenrat in Prague was responsible for all the Czech Jewish communities. One of the Council's main duties was to sort and store the valuables confiscated from Czech Jews: furniture, clothing, and ritual objects. It was decided, probably at the initiative of the Council with the assent of the SS, to use some of the more outstanding objects for the establishment of a Jewish museum, based on the small prewar museum and the synagogues of the Old City. This museum soon housed the largest collection of Judaica in Europe. Describes the organization and work of the staff and the exhibitions, which were probably seen only by Nazi and SS officials. Günther interfered very little, but the staff was constantly decimated by deportations. Speculates on the SS's motives for permitting the establishment of this museum. Suggests that Günther, who also commissioned the Theresienstadt film, may have taken personal pride in it. It may also have fitted in with Heydrich's apparent plans to turn the Protectorate into an SS state with a university in Prague; future SS officers should know the enemy that still lurked in the rest of the world, though exterminated in Europe. Traces, also, the fate of other collections of Judaica, such as those at the RSHA or at Rosenberg's Institut zur Erforschung der Judenfrage in Frankfurt.
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