cemetery location [February 2009]
[UPDATE] Photos by Charles Burns [November 2017]
US Commission No. CZCE000268turnov
Alternate name: Wotitz in German and Otice in Hungarian. Votice is located in Bohemia, Benesov at 49°39' N, 14°39' E , 24 km N of Tabor and 31 miles SSE of Praha (Prague), in central Bohemia.. Cemetery: 0.5 km E. Present town population is 1,000-5,000 with than 10 Jews.
- Town: Mayor Vaclav Divis, Mestsky Urad, 259 01 Votice.
- Regional: Jewish congregation: Ms. Jana Wolfova, ZNO Praha, Maislova 18, 110 01 Praha 1; tel. 02/231-86-64 and Okresni Urad-Referat Kultury, 256 01 Benesov u Prahy and District Conservator of Monuments: PhDr. Jiri Tywoniak, Zapova 601/22, 256 01 Benesov u Prahy; tel. 0301/23618.
- Interested: Okresni Muzeum Benesov, Male namesti 74, 256 01 Benesov u Prahy; and Statni Zidovske Muzeum, Jachymova 3, 110 01 Praha 1; tel. 02/231-06-34 and 231-07-85. Local historian: Libuse Ingrova, Riegrova 14, 259 01 Votice. Local historian: Pavel Pavlovsky, Komenskeho namesti, 259 01 Votice. MUDr. Ondrej Bazant, Obrancu miru 660, 259 01 Votice; tel. 0302/2430. Vaclav Sustr, Jr., Zizkova 535, 259 01 Votice; tel. 0302/2387.
Earliest known Jewish community was 1538. Jewish population: 340 (in 1869), 163 (in 1910), and 76 (in 1930). Jews moved to big towns after 1848. Jedidja Weil, regional rabbi in Karlsruhe (died 1769), and Rabbi Moses Bloch, first director of Budapest rabbinical school (1815-1909) lived here. The landmarked Jewish cemetery originated before 1539 with last known Conservative Jewish burial in 1963. The isolated suburban slight slope has no sign or marker. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open to all via a broken masonry wall reconstruction with locking gate surrounds the cemetery. The pre- and post-WWII size of cemetery is 0.2395 ha.
100-500 stones date from 1705 and 1717-20th century. The granite, limestone and sandstone flat shaped stones, finely smoothed and inscribed stones, flat stones with carved relief decoration, double tombstones or multi-stone monuments have Hebrew, German and Czech inscriptions. Some have metal fences around graves. The cemetery contains no known mass graves but has a pre-burial house. Praha Jewish community owns cemetery. Adjacent properties are recreational and soccer field and parking. Occasionally, private visitors and local residents stop. Vandalism occurred during World War II, occasionally 1945-1991. Local non-Jewish residents, local/municipal authorities, Jewish individuals and groups within country did restoration in 1991. Now, authorities occasionally clean or clear. Moderate threat: uncontrolled access and weather erosion. Slight threat: pollution, vegetation and vandalism.
Ladislav Mertl, Mgr. of Geography, Kubanske namesti 1322/17, Praha 10-Vrsovice; tel. 02/743213 and Jiri Fiedler, z"l, Brdickova 1916, 155 00 Praha 5; tel. 02/553340 completed survey in June 1992. Documentation: Hugo Gold: Die Juden und Judengemeinden Bohemens 1934); Jahrbuch fur die israelische Cultusgemeinden Bohmen 1893-94); 1979 research notes of Statni Zidovske Muzeum Praha; Jan Herman: Jewish Cemeteries of Bohemia and Moravia (1980); 1984 letters of deceased local historian Josef Barton; 1983-4 letters of deceased Libuse Ingrova; and censuses of 1724, 1930, and 1991. Other documentation was inaccessible. The site was not visited. Bazant and Sustr ,several times during Autumn 1991 and Spring 1992, L. Ingrova (1986-1988), and J. Barton (1986-1988) were interviewed.