NACHOD

NACHOD (Czech Náchod ), town in N.E. Bohemia, Czech Republic. Its Jewish community was one of the four oldest in *Bohemia and is first mentioned in the city records of 1455. The Jewish street dates from the end of the 15^th century. Jews were expelled from Nachod in 1542 and robbed on their way to Poland. They returned in 1544 and founded a school which is mentioned in 1547. The cemetery dates from 1550 and a mikveh from 1592. Eleven families were recorded in the town in 1570. In 1663, the Jews were accused of having caused a conflagration in which their quarter and a large part of the town was destroyed. One member of the community was executed; the whole community was attacked, and its members fled. Some founded a community in Ceska Skalice which was expelled in 1705. Soon reestablished, the Nachod community had 60 families in 1724. The synagogue was rebuilt in 1777. Jews were active in making Nachod a center of the textile industry; in 1848 Isaac Mautner founded the famous Mautner textile company. At the end of the century they were beset by antisemitic riots and plunder in connection with the *Hilsner case (1899). There were 150 Jewish families in Nachod in 1852; 630 persons in 1893; 463 in 1921; and 293 in 1930 (2.1% of the total population). In 1902 there were 100 Jews in 22 surrounding localities, among them formerly important communities such as Hronov, Cerveny Kostelec (Ger. Rothkosteletz), and Police nad Metuji, who were affiliated to the Nachod community. In 1934 the *Moller family transferred their textile factory to Palestine, founding the Ata company at *Kiryat Ata. Among the rabbis of Nachod were Heinrich (Ḥayyim) *Brody, who officiated from 1898 to 1905, and Gustav *Sicher. Under Nazi occupation in June 1939, the synagogue was desecrated, and in July the Gestapo raided Jewish homes. The cemetery – its oldest monument dating from 1648 – was also destroyed. In December 1942 the Jews were deported to Theresienstadt, and from there to the death camps of Poland. After World War ii a small congregation affiliated with the *Liberec community was established, primarily by veteran soldiers from *Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Nachod was one of the important transit stations for *Beriḥah (1945–46). A monument was erected there for the victims of the Holocaust in 1958. The synagogue building was demolished in the 1960s.

bibliography:

H. Gold, Die Juden und Judengemeinden Boehmens (1934), 412–3; Jakobovitz, in jggjČ, 9 (1938), 271–305; pk.

[Jan Herman]