Prostějov will announce a tender for the study of memorial adjustments to the former Jewish cemetery

Prostějov - The Prostějov city hall will announce a public procurement for the processing of a study on the memorial arrangement of the former Jewish cemetery. The processing of the study, which is expected to be completed in mid-next year, is estimated to cost the city hall around 750,000 CZK. This was announced today by Mayor František Jura (ANO). The former Jewish cemetery in Prostějov, which the Ministry of Culture listed as a cultural monument in 2016, was destroyed during the German occupation. During that time, residents from surrounding villages took the gravestones with Jewish inscriptions and used them to pave yards, for example. The cemetery site is now a park and a parking lot.

"The subject of the procurement is the preparation of a variant study of the architectural solution for the memorial arrangement of the former Jewish cemetery and adjacent public spaces, including visualization and engineering activities. This mainly concerns public green areas on Studentská Street, the entrance atrium to the Real Gymnasium building and O. Wichterl School, as well as the areas of the adjacent parking lot and related areas," said Jura.

The city plans to eliminate the parking lot and create a new parking area for cars as part of the memorial arrangement of the former Jewish cemetery. A road leading to the sports field behind the school is also planned to be built. Access for integrated rescue system components to the school will be possible outside the area of the old Jewish cemetery.

In 2019, after several years of discussions, the city hall reached an agreement with the Kolel Damesek Eliezer foundation, the Hanácký Jeruzalém association, and the Federation of Jewish Communities regarding the memorial arrangement of the old Jewish cemetery. The old Jewish cemetery in Prostějov was established in 1801 and was closed in 1943 at the instigation of the German mayor. Among those buried in the closed cemetery are the ancestors of philosopher Edmund Husserl and writer Stefan Zweig.

The Kolel Damesek Eliezer foundation has long sought to enhance the site of the former cemetery, but could not reach an agreement with the city hall regarding the memorial arrangement for a long time. Meanwhile, the dispute was recorded by global media and made it into the regular reports of the U.S. Department of State, which focuses on human rights protection around the world. Some time ago, the Holocaust Museum in Washington expressed interest in gravestones from the destroyed cemetery that were found in Prostějov and its surroundings thanks to the efforts of the foundation.