MemoMap Prague | Research the history of the Holocaust in the city space

What is MemoMap Prague and what can I find in it?

MemoMap Prague is a historical-geographical information system that you can use both on your home or school computer, as well as on your modern mobile device as you walk around the city. The various types of data are divided into layers that you can easily switch between. The app provides a helpful user guide and additional information.

Where did Jews live and what happened to them?

Before the Second World War, roughly forty thousand Jews lived in Prague. Their population swelled after they were expelled from the borderlands and their persecution began. In MemoMap Prague, users can research the fates of individual victims through the map. The layer Jewish residences during the occupation contains over eight thousand addresses at which Jewish inhabitants lived during the Nazi occupation. Information about their domiciles generally comes from the registration card files of the Jews in the Protectorate. The authorities began keeping these files in the fall of 1941 and they mostly describe an individual’s situation after being forcibly moved to another neighborhood or into a shared apartment. By clicking on a specific address, you will see not only the total number of Jewish inhabitants and their fates during the occupation, but also the names and photos of the victims, including links to detailed information on the portal holocaust.cz. This data comes from the Database of Victims maintained by the Terezín Initiative Institute. The timeline feature allows you to observe more clearly the gradual disappearance of Jewish residents as a result of deportations to ghettos and concentration camps. The application thus sheds light on the destruction of Prague’s linguistically, ethnically, and religiously diverse society.

City space in conflict

Using the application, you can clearly see how the city space, into which they had become integrated during the period of emancipation (in the second half of the 19th century), gradually changed for this persecuted group. After Jews were granted equal rights, they had access to all the conveniences of the modern city, from transportation options (trams, train stations, and train) or the opportunity to spend their free time in Prague’s parks, at the theater, or in the cinema. Newly built stunning synagogues were located in the most popular and elegant areas, and were a potent symbol of integration. The regulations, decrees, and bans that were passed in 1939–1943 limited the personal space and free movement of Jews, as well as their access to resources (food, clothing, etc.) and information. Jews weren’t allowed to leave their registered domiciles without permission. The number of zones in Prague where Jews were barred from entering continually changed and increased. Most parks, public gardens, forests, and relaxation spots were no longer accessible to Jews. They were restricted in their shopping and state office hours, they weren’t allowed to walk on certain streets or loiter near specific buildings, they couldn’t leave their homes after 8 p.m., and they were banned from entering cafes, restaurants, cinemas, theaters, and from going to concerts, libraries, and public swimming pools. In the Forbidden places layer, you can trace the process of the Jews’ exclusion from the public space. The list of these places is based on the Protectorate regulations and they conform to the historical map from 1938. Today, these spaces can vary in size and appearance. The Points of interest layer consists of everyday spaces that Prague’s Jews could enjoy, but later became places of their persecution. These sites include synagogues, which gradually lost their religious function and were used as warehouses of confiscated Jewish property. The layer entitled Incidents allows you to research the interaction of the persecuted with the rest of the city’s inhabitants, the Protectorate police, and occupation-era authorities in the city space, as well as their actions and resistance to being socially excluded. Roughly 1,700 cases found in Prague police documents are of Jews violating anti-Jewish regulations and ordinances. For instance, MemoMap Prague users can find out which regulations were disobeyed most often, which locations saw the highest number of arrests and checks, and which public orders caused the greatest problems for the Jewish population.

Sites of commemoration

The Sites of commemoration layer is all about monuments and memorials to the victims of the Holocaust that stand in the public space today. Currently, this data encompasses the Stolpersteine (stones of the disappeared) placed into the pavement in front of the home of victims. This address may be different from the pre-deportation home that Jews were forced to move into.

About the project

The MemoMap Prague application was created by [the Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences] (https://www.mua.cas.cz) as a service of the Czech national node of the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI), which is part of the LINDAT/CLARIAH-CZ infrastructure that is fully supported by the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports as part of their large research infrastructure program. The preparation of the data and the creation of the new software was also made possible thanks to the support of the Foundation for Holocaust Victims and the Strategy AV21 program City as laboratory of change. The new app is based on the MemoGIS Prague application that was the result of the Integration and Segregation in Cityspace: The History of the Holocaust in Prague Through a Web Application project (identifier TL01000366), which was supported by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic  as part of the public tender ÉTA 1. The Masaryk Institute and Archives developed the original MemoGIS application together with the Terezín Initiative Institute and Multicultural Center Prague.