Prague in WWII
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In September of 1938, Hitler took over the Sudetenland, the German-speaking part of Czechoslovakia. On March 15th, 1939, the Nazis occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia: Bohemia and Moravia with populations of 118,310 Jews in 136 communities. The following day, Hitler declared that Bohemia and Moravia would be a protectorate of Nazi Germany; meaning that they would be controlled by the Nazis. In Bohemia and Moravia, the treatment of Jews by the Gestapo was horrible, arresting hundreds of Jews every day. Jewish institutions were shut down and blatant violence against Jews was rampant including the burning of Shuls and public humiliations. Jewish suicides jumped to 30-40 every day. Leaving the country was an incredibly difficult, expensive, and time-consuming process, and while many Jews were able to flee many others weren’t. In a span of only a week, Jewish doctors and Lawyers were stripped of their licenses, Jewish businesses were forced to distinguish themselves from Aryan ones, and the Czech finance minister froze all Jewish bank accounts of those living in Bohemia/Moravia.
The violence only continued to escalate and the Gestapo began sending Jews to concentration camps. By June of 1939, a decree had been issued adopting the Nuremberg Laws to Bohemia/Moravia, limiting Jewish rights in all aspects of life. During the 1940s Jews were stripped of even more rights. As part of the evolving genocide, on September 1st, 1941, the Jews of Prague were forced to publicly identify themselves by wearing a yellow star.
On July 9, 1942, Paula Froehlich, like many other Jews from Prague, was deported from Prague to Terezin, a transit center to hold Jews before they were sent to death camps. After a few months, on October 19, 1942, Paula, along with 1983 others, was deported from Terezin to Treblinka, a death camp, where all of them were murdered. A month later, on November 20, 1942, Erwin Froehlich was deported from Prague to Terezin. He was later deported again on January 20, 1943, to Auschwitz-Birkenau, a death camp, where he was murdered.
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