During WWII 1,564 Torah scrolls were taken by the Nazis from synagogues all over Bohemia and Moravia. They survived the war and were stored in an old dilapidated shul in Prague until, in 1964, they were purchased and brought over to London’s Westminster Synagogue and the Czech Memorial Scrolls Trust was set up. The Trust repaired the scrolls and loans them out to synagogues around the world, and we have scroll number 970, which came from the town of Pacov.

The town of Pacov lies in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands area of the Czech Republic and currently it has about 5,000 inhabitants. There are no resident Jews in Pacov today, however there used to be a thriving community.

The origins of the Jewish community in Pacov can be traced back to the late 16th century. The first prayer room was probably situated in a private home. A freestanding Classical synagogue was erected around
1823 and later rebuilt in the Neo-Romanesque style.

The number of Jews in Pacov peaked around 1880 at over 200 persons. Afterwards it slowly declined as many left for foreign countries or bigger cities, mainly Prague. In November 1942 the 97 Jews who then lived in Pacov were transported to Theresienstadt and later to Auschwitz concentration camps where all but six of them eventually perished. No seniors or children survived – including the youngest Holocaust victim Helenka Schecková, who was 2 years old at the time.

The last Pacov rabbi Nathan Guttmann died in Auschwitz too. His daughter Nelly survived the Holocaust and now lives in Israel.

Residents of the town of Pacov have set up an organisation called Tikkun Pacov, with the aim of converting the old synagogue building into a museum and memorial for the Jews who used to live in Pacov. In 2018 they managed to raise money to buy the building, which was being used for storage, and they are now working on repairing the building. You can find out more about Tikkun Pacov from their website: http://tikkun.cz/?page_id=44&lang=en.