DOLNI CETNO: Mlada Boleslav, Bohemia

photo of pre-burial house during renovation p 68 and town images [February 2009]

[UPDATE] Photos by Charles Burns [November 2017]

 

US Commission No. CZCE000034
[Also used cemetery at Mlada Boleslav before 1869 and Zamosti]
Alternate German name: Unter-Zetno. The town is in Bohemia, Mlada Boleslav at 14º29 50º24, 7 km WSW of Mlada Boleslav. The cemetery is 250 meters NNE of the bridge in the center of Dolni Cetno, close to the road leading to Petikozly (on the cadastre of Petikozly). The town population is under 1,000 with no Jews.

• Town: Obecni Urad Petikozly, 294 30 Dolni Cetno; tel. 0326/958-31. The mayor's name is Stanislav Novak.
  
• Regional: Okresni Urad, Referat Kultury, 293 01 Mlada Boleslav; and Pamatkovy urad strednich Cech, Hybernska 18, 110 01 Praha 1; tel. 02/23-54-940 to 42; and Zidovska Nabozenska Obec v Praze Matislova 18, 110 01 Praha 1; tel. 02/231-69-25.
  
• Interested: Okresni Muzeum, Staromestske namesti 1, 283 80 Mlada Boleslav; tel. 0326/2279 or 3234; and Statni Zidovske Muzeum, Jachymova 3, 110 01 Praha 1; tel. 02/231-06-34 or 231-07-85.
  
• Historian of the local Jewish community: MUDr. Jan Kuna, U stadionu 972, 293 01 Mlada Boleslav.
  
• Caretaker with key: Obecni Urad Petikozly, see above.

Earliest known Jewish community is the late 18th century. 1930 Jewish population was 5. Peak Jewish population was the mid-19th century with over 100. The independent Jewish congregation was probably disbanded in 1893. The Jewish cemetery originated in 1868 or 1869 with last known Conservative or Progressive/Reform Jewish burial in the unlandmarked cemetery in 1938. The flat isolated suburban site has no sign or marker. Reached directly off a public road, access is open with permission with a broken masonry wall without gate. Both before and after World War II, the cemetery was 0.042 ha. 20-100 gravestones exist, some in original location and more than 75% toppled or broken. Removed stones are located in a museum of conservation. Gravestones date from 1870-20th century. The marble, granite or sandstone flat shaped, finely smoothed and inscribed, double tombstones, multi-stone monuments or common gravestones have inscriptions in Hebrew, German or Czech. There are no known mass graves, but within the cemetery is a pre-burial house. Praha Jewish community owns the property used only as a cemetery. Adjacent properties are agricultural. Occasionally, private visitors stop. Vandalism occurred during World War II, between 1945 and the present, and frequently in the last 10 years. Jewish groups in the country cleared vegetation, added barbed-wire fence and took away litter in 1991. Praha Jewish congregation pays the regular caretaker. Security and vandalism are very serious threats, pollution a moderate threat and weather erosion and vegetation slight threats.
Engineer Mojmir Maly, Ve Stresovickach 58, 169 00 Praha 6; tel. 02/35-57-69, and Jiri Fiedler, z"l, Brdickova 1916, 155 00 Praha 5; tel. 02/55-33-40 completed survey on August 1, 1992. Documentation: cadastre of 1868, the censuses of 1794, 1849, 1870 and 1930, manuscripts, notes and letters of MUDr. J. Kuna, mentioned above. Other documentation exists, but it is too small or inaccessible. Maly visited site and interviewed MUDr. J. Kuna in Mlada Boleslav in 1991.