The Jewish religious community in Brno, with full legal subjectivity, was founded only in 1859. Due to the number of members, it later became one of the largest and most important communities in Czechoslovakia. Jews from all over Moravia, as well as from the more distant provinces of the monarchy, moved to Brno in search of opportunities.

In 1938, the Brno Jewish community had twelve thousand members. Its foundations and associations administered Jewish schools, an old-age home, an orphanage, a soup kitchen for the poor, and the Makabi sports complex with an excursion restaurant on the Riviera. However, the flourishing of the Jewish community linked to the flourishing of the city of Brno was short-lived.

The first warning signs came with the refugees from Nazi Germany and later from Austria. The regime prevailing in the so-called Second Republic, after the annexation of Czechoslovak borderlands in the autumn of 1938, was already downright anti-Jewish. After the occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia and the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, only brutal terror awaited the city's Jewish population.

Now watch the testimony clip.