Hradec Kralove, Czechoslovakia

HRADEC KRALOVE, Bohemia, Czechoslovakia, today Czech Republic. Jews were present from the founding of the city in 1225 but a community is only known from the late 14th century. From the mid-15th century to the mid-16th century, they were expelled a number of times. A new community was founded in 1860. A synagogue was consecrated in 1905, when the Jewish population was about 300 (3% of the total). The Zionists were active after WWI. In 1930, there were 425 Jews in Hradec Kralove. After the annexation of the Sudetenland to Germany in September 1938, Jewish refugees arrived and anti-Semitism intensified, as Jews were gradually isolated socially and economically. Eighty converted between 1938 and 1941. About 1,200 Jews from Hradec Kralove and other towns were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto and the death camps of Poland on 17 and 21 December 1942. Just 16 from Hradec Kralove survived.