town image By the middle of the 14th century, plague and starvation virtually depopulated the entire area. The Catholic Church, owners of the lands, administered their properties via cloisters in Bamberg, Augsburg and Brixen. These cloisters called upon German farmers to resettle the place, about 60 villages of which eight with a total of about 3500 inhabitants still existed before the eviction of the Germans after World War II. Mostly Roman Catholic farmers, the rhythm of life was governed by the church and its festivals. A German education was considered to be of great importance so six villages had their own German elementary school and the town of Lissowitz even had a grammar school. The farmhouses were built on both sides of a common green area ( The Commons ) and consisted of one-story structures with thatched roofs and a two-story entrance. Stables and other dependances were built in a rectangle around a courtyard on the back of the farmhouse. The very colorful women's dresses displayed handmade embroidery with astiffly starched, frilled collar called "Tatzl." After their WWII explusion, the former inhabitants found new homes in Germany, Austria and in other countries and 1949 formed an association, "Language Island of Wischau," in the German town of Aalen in order to help the scattered families move together again. Source: Wikipedia. The cemetery founded at the end of the 19th century contains only few graves. The unused area has been turned into a gardening market. location [February 2009]
US Commission No. CZCE000208
Alternate German name: Wischau. Vyškov is located in Morava-Byskov at 49°16′N 16°59′E , 30 km NE of Brno. Cemetery: 2 km E in Kromerizska Street. Present town population is 5,000-25,000 with than 10 Jews.
- Town: Mayor Engineer Kamil Kral, Mestsky Urad, Masarykovo namesti 1, 682 01 Vyskov; tel. 0507/21661.
- Local: Bozena Vecerova, Mestsky Urad-Referat Kultury, Masarykovo namesti 1, 682 01 Vyskov; tel. 0507/21821.
- Regional: Dr. Ivo Klenk, Okresni Urad-Referat Kultury, 682 01 Vyskov; tel. 0507/411.
- Interested: Muzeum Vyskovska, Director Dr. Frantisek Jordan, zamek, 682 01 Vyskov; tel. 0507/21147. Josef Dolan, Kasikova 7, 682 01 Vyskov; tel. 0507/21372.
- Caretaker with key: Vaclav Smely, Kromerizska 12, 682 01 Vyskov; tel. 0507/21512.
Earliest known Jewish community was 1322 to second half of 19th century. 1930 Jewish population was 44. Jews banished 15th to 17th century with establishment of Jewish community in 1860. The Jewish cemetery originated at end of 19th century with last known Conservative Jewish burial before 1942. No other towns or villages used this unlandmarked cemetery. The rural (agricultural) isolated flat land by water has no sign or marker. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open to all via a continuous masonry wall and locking gate. The pre- and post-WWII size of cemetery is 0.3174 ha.
20-100 stones date from end of 19th century. The marble and granite flat shaped stones, finely smoothed and inscribed stones or obelisks have Hebrew, German and Czech inscriptions. Some have bronze decorations or lettering and/or metal fences around graves. The cemetery contains no special memorial monuments or known mass graves but has a pre-burial house with unnoted distinctive features. Brno Jewish community owns the property used for Jewish cemetery and agriculture (crops or animal grazing). Adjacent properties are agricultural. Rarely, private visitors stop. This cemetery was not vandalized. Local non-Jewish residents and Jewish groups within country did work in 1991. Now, there is regular unpaid caretaker. Slight threat: weather erosion, vegetation and existing nearby development.
Engineer arch. Jaroslav Klenovsky, Zebetinska 13, 623 00 Brno; tel. 0 completed survey on 1 March 1992. Documentation: Jan Herman: Jewish Cemeteries of Bohemia and Moravia (1980). Other exisiting documentation was not used. No site visits or interviews occurred.