But in March 1938 this government allowed the Germans to annex their country. In November, they actively aided the German SS and SA arresting Jews, and burnings over 5000 businesses and 93 synagogues. Over the next seven years, it helped in the destruction of the vast majority of the 200,000 Austrian Jews. A quick tour of the Central Cemetery finds that the Christian section is fairly well kept, with grass trimmed and new flowers near many of the older, as well as the newer graves. Yet the Jewish section is overgrown with grass.
Worn stones tilt crazily and the Hebrew text is worn into greater incomprehensibility.
No, the graves were not desecrated, but simply untended by their families, families which had been slaughtered by the Nazis. Now, a mere 5000 are spread throughout the country. The community in Prague had begun in the 11th century, and grew large enough to support five synagogues. These buildings did survive the terror of the Nazis, yet all but one have been turned into museums run by the state, mute testimony to the fact that after 900 years, there are simply no more Jews in Prague beyond a few old men and women. Surprisingly, part of the Berlin synagogue remains standing, despite the fire during Kristallnacht in November 1938 and subsequent bombings of Berlin by the Allies in 1943.