Mlada Boleslav, Czechoslovakia

Mlada Boleslav (in Jewish sources, Bumsla) Bohemia, Czechoslovakia. With Kolin, Roudnice, and Nachod, Mlada Bolselav was one of the four important Bohemian Jewish communities known by the Hebrew acronym KRBN derived from the initials of the towns. Mlada Boleslav is first mentioned in 1471. By 1687, Jews numbered 775 (about half the population). Many Jews died in the plagues of 1680 and 1691. After a 1697 fire, the Jewish quarter was closed off. Hostility and persecution, against a religious and economic background, marked relations with the Catholic population. A new synagogue was built in 1785 after another fire struck the ghetto. In the 18th century, Jews were peddlers and manufacturers of soap, flour, and cooking utensils. In 1858, a Jew was appointed mayor. The Jewish population rose to 845 (total 9,195) in 1880 and then declined steadily, to 402 in 1910 and 264 in 1930. For hundreds of years, Mlada Boleslav was considered an important religious center, earning the sobriquet “Jerusalem of the Jizera River.” On 4 June 1942 the Jews were registered for deportation after being confined in an ancient castle near the city. In mid-January 1943, they were sent to the Theresienstadt ghetto. Most were dispatched to Auschwitz in the same month. In all, 184 of the 232 Jewish depontees perished. The rest of the Jews, mostly those in mixed marriages or economically influential, were deported in 1944.