town image [February 2009]
With a population of 31,239 in the Krkonoše in the valley of the Úpa River, Trutnov is located on a 12th century Slavic settlement named after the Úpa River. The first documentation of this settlement is from 1260. King Wenceslaus I of Bohemia granted German settlers the right to establish a town at the pre-existing settlement. Since the end of the 14th century Trutnov was a dowry town for the Bohemian queen. Its stout defenses repelled all enemies except for Jan Žižka during the Hussite Wars in 1421 and the Swedes during the Thirty Years' War in 1642 and 1647. For centuries Trutnov was an agrarian economy, but industrialization came during the 19th century. In 1823 Johannes Faltis manufactured linen and had a cotton mill. Textiles remains an important part of the city's economy. Germans were the ethnic majority in the town until their expulsion in 1945. On 11 November 1998 headstones in a cemetery in the eastern Czech town of Trutnov were sprayed with anti-Jewish graffiti. A plaque marking the site of the town's former synagogue was also covered in graffiti, as was a monument to Jewish girls used as slave labourers in the Second World War.November 2003: "..police in the northern town of Trutnov say the graves of 15 Jewish girls killed by the Nazis have been desecrated. Fifteen tombstones were overturned and damaged in the attack. Police are treating the incident as racially-motivated. The head of the Prague Jewish Community said the attack could be connected with the 65th anniversary of "Kristalnacht", when thousands of Jewish shops and synagogues across Germany were burned and looted by the Nazis. He said the number of attacks against Jewish monuments rose each November." Source [February 2009]
US Commission No. CZCE000408
Alternate name: Trautenau in German. Trutnov is located in Bohemia-Trutnov at 50º34 15º54, 23 km NW of Nachod; 38 km NNE of Hradec Kralove. Cemetery: 900-m SW of the main square, near Kralovedvorska street, on the place of settlement called Slunecna stran. Present town population is 25,000-100,000 with fewer than 10 Jews.
- Town: Mestsky Urad, Horska 5/1, 541 01 Trutnov; tel. 0439/3251. Mayor: Engineer Hillebrand).
- Regional: Okresni Urad-Referat Kultury, Horska 5/1, 541 01 Trutnov; tel. 0439/3251 or 4251. ZNO Praha, Maislova 18, 110 01 Praha 1; tel. 02/2316925. PhDr Jiri Tywoniak (District Conservator of Monuments) 256 01 Benesov u Prahy; tel. 0301/23618.
- Interested: Muzeum Podkrkonosi, Skolni 9, 541 01 Trutnov; tel. 0439/2036. ThMgr. Nadezda Brazdilova (parish-priest of Hussite Church), Upicka 18, 541 01 Trutnov; tel. 0439/2215.
Earliest known Jewish community was 1850's or 1860's. 1930 Jewish population was 369. Only 1-2 Jewish families were permitted before 1848. Graves of Jewish soldiers (monuments) from 1866 war are in nearby forest. Peak Jewish population was probably about 1900; pogrom and expulsion of Jews by Nazis were in 1938. Several labor camps for Jews existed in vicinity in 1942-1945. 41 Jewish girl-inmates are buried in municipal cemetery of Trutnov: tombstone-monument exists. Many surviving Jewish women (of Polish origin) from the camps settled in the town and vicinity after liberation. Scanty religious society with prayer-room existed after WWII until 1957. The Jewish unlandmarked cemetery originated in 1870 with last known Conservative or Progressive/Reform Jewish burial in 1948. The suburban hillside, separate but near cemeteries, has no sign or marker (memorial tablet stolen in 1970's). Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open to all via no wall, fence, or gate. The approximate size of cemetery before WWII was 0.25 ha s and is now unknown.
No stones are in original location. The cemetery contains no known mass graves but has other structures. The municipality owns property used for settlement called Slunecna stran. Adjacent properties are recreational, commercial or industrial, agricultural, residential and wood. Vandalism occurred prior to World War II (1938 by Nazis), during World War II, never in 1981-91, 1945-1981 (liquidated and mortuary and walls pulled down after 1952) by local/municipal authorities and Jewish groups within country.
Vlastmila Hamackova, Zabelska 37, Engineer Mojmir Maly, Ve Stresovickach 58, 169 00 Praha 6; tel. 02/35-57-69. Jiri Fiedler, z"l, Brdickova 1916, 155 00 Praha 5; tel. 02/553340 completed survey on Aug. 28, 1992. Documentation: census 1830, 1849, 1930Jahrbuch fuer die israelische Cultusgemeinden Boehmens(1893-1894); Simon Huettel: Chronik der Stadt Trautenau (1881) letters of Vit Korec, kead of local Jewish community, deceased (1986-1987). Other documentation was inaccessible. The site was not visited. V. Korec (1982-1987 in Praha) was interviewed.
"On 11/11/1998, stones in the cemetery were spray-painted. The Czech government quickly condemned the act. The suspect was charged with a hate crime." Source: Washington Jewish Week 11/19/1998 p. 25