US Commission No. CZCE000227 and US Commission No. CZCE000079 [duplicates] Alternate German name: Drahenz. The town is in the province of Bohemia, Louny at 50º09 13º20, 32 km ESE of Karlovy Vary. The cemetery is 1 km SE on the cadastre of Repany. Present town population is under 1,000 with no Jews.
- Town: Mestsky Urad, 439 83 Lubenec.
- Regional: Jewish congregation ZNO, Moskevska 26 400 01 Usti nad Labem. Okresni Urad, Referat Kultury, 440 01 Louny.
- Interested: Regionalni Muzeum, Dr. Holednak, Dr. Zinnnerova, Husova 678, 438 01 Zatec; tel. 0397/2840 and Okresni Muzeum Louny, Pivovarska 28, 440 01 Louny; tel. 0395/2456 and Statni Zidovske Muzeum, Jachymova 3 110 01 Praha 1 and Lambert Putna, Drahonice, 439-83 Lubenec.
Earliest known Jewish community was probably beginning of the 15th century. A community was verified at the beginning of the 17th century. By 1930 Census: no Jews were in Drahonice, 8 in Libyne, and 34 in Lubenec. About 1790, the seat of the congregation moved to Libyne (Libin: German). About 1870, it moved to Lubenec (Lubenz in German). Nazis expelled the Jews in 1938. The Jewish cemetery originated before 1605 with last known Conservative or Progressive/Reform Jewish burial before 1943. Libyne and Lubenec, each 2-km away, used site. The isolated rural hillside has no sign. Reached directly off a public road, access open to all via a broken masonry wall without gate. The cemetery before WWII and now is 1,760 sq. m.
20-100 gravestones exist, most in original locations with less than 75% toppled or broken, date from 1826. Some stones removed from the cemetery are in a museum of conservation. The granite or sandstone flat shaped, finely smoothed and inscribed, flat with carved relief decoration or multi-stone monuments have Hebrew or German inscriptions. Some have metal fences around the graves. The cemetery contains special memorial monuments to Russian War prisoners. Usti nad Labem Jewish community owns the site. Adjacent properties are agricultural. Rarely, private visitors or local residents stop. Prior to World War II, occasionally in the last ten years and between 1945 and ten years ago vandalism occurred as it did in 1938 by the Nazis. There are no maintenance or structures. Vegetation is completely uncontrolled; security, weather erosion and vandalism are moderate threats; and pollution is a slight threat.
Ladislav Mertl, Mgr. of Geography, Kubanske nam.1322/17, 100 00 Praha 10; tel. 02/743213 and Jiri Fiedler, z"l, Brdickova 1916, 155 00 Praha 5 completed survey on May 16, 1992. Documentation: Gold: Juden...Bohemens..(1934), notes of Statni Zidovske Muzeum Praha, local history of Lubenec, Heimatbuch des Kreises Luditz (1972), and the census of 1930, 1991. The site was visited on May 16, 1992 by Mr. Mertl, who interviewed Hana Rousarova-historian, 439 83 Lubenec, cp. 57, 1984-85 and with L. Putna, in Drahonice.