It is not exactly known when the emergency shelter for small children, in the left side extension of the Vinohrady synagogue, was established. Historians estimate that it was established around the autumn of 1939, after the last Vinohrady Rabbi had left for British Mandate Palestine and the last Cantor emigrated to America. The shelter was created in the premises vacated by their departure. Hana Epsteinová, real heroine of social work with children during World War II, became the head of the shelter. Because Jews were not allowed to go to parks or other public places, older children took walks on the flat part of the synagogue roof. Research shows that out of all the inmates of the Sázavská street shelter, only one boy has survived. He lives under a changed Czech name today.
The Vinohrady synagogue became a storage of confiscated Jewish furniture, kitchen fixtures, brooms and night pots after all synagogues had been closed down due to the order of Deputy Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich, issued on September 29, 1941, that is two days after his arrival to Prague. The emergency shelter for small children was moved out at about the same time.
One of the very few existing memories of the shelter’s very existence can be found in this clip from the testimony of Hana Reinerová