Queer Icon: The Cult of Bette Davis
The Jewish population in Czech lands was destroyed during World War II. Only ten percent of Czech Jews survived. During the war, the Jewish Museum in Prague inexplicably managed to collect, carefully…
Queer Icon: The Cult of Bette Davis
The Jewish population in Czech lands was destroyed during World War II. Only ten percent of Czech Jews survived. During the war, the Jewish Museum in Prague inexplicably managed to collect, carefully document, and store the largest body of European Jewish ritual objects to survive the Holocaust. In the midst of the Cold War, the Communists sold off part of the collection, 1,564 Torah scrolls, to a foreign art dealer representing a London based Jewish philanthropist. Unlike the fate of many other cultural objects stolen by the Communists and sold to private Western buyers, these Torah scrolls were distributed to living Jewish communities throughout the world. At the same time, life in the communities from which these Torah scrolls originated has continued. Local residents who also survived the Nazis and the Communists are actively engaged in trying to make sense of the empty synagogues and historical Jewish landmarks in their midst.
Queer Icon: The Cult of Bette Davis
Documentary
Film Details
The Jewish population in Czech lands was destroyed during World War II. Only ten percent of Czech Jews survived. During the war, the Jewish Museum in Prague inexplicably managed to collect, carefully document, and store the largest body of European Jewish ritual objects to survive the Holocaust.
In the midst of the Cold War, the Communists sold off part of the collection, 1,564 Torah scrolls, to a foreign art dealer representing a London based Jewish philanthropist. Unlike the fate of many other cultural objects stolen by the Communists and sold to private Western buyers, these Torah scrolls were distributed to living Jewish communities throughout the world. At the same time, life in the communities from which these Torah scrolls originated has continued.
Local residents who also survived the Nazis and the Communists are actively engaged in trying to make sense of the empty synagogues and historical Jewish landmarks in their midst..