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The End of Prague's Ghetto

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The End of Prague's Ghetto Cathleen M. Giustino. Tearing Down Prague's Jewish Town: Ghetto Clearance and the Legacy of Middle-Class Ethnic Politics around 1900. Boulder: East European Monographs, 2003. xiv + 425 pp. $40.50, cloth, ISBN 978-0-88033-516-4. Reviewed by T. Mills Kelly Published on HABSBURG (August, 2004) In her history of ghetto clearance in late-Hab‐ study of how this rising anti-Semitism translated sburg Prague, Cathleen Giustino positions the into social policy at the local level--especially in clearance project at the heart of three intersecting the venue of municipal politics driven by both the developments: an assault on the built environ‐ forces of modernization and by competition be‐ ment of old Prague by an aggressively moderniz‐ tween the two largest Czech parties of the day. ing Czech liberal elite, growing anti-Semitism in The clearance program conceived and carried out the city as Jews spread beyond the boundaries of by these parties aimed to "sanitize" the Prague the old ghetto, and the fragmentation of Czech ghetto of Josefov, literally and fguratively, osten‐ middle-class politics and the Czech nation. From sibly to promote public health and less ostensibly the ghetto's position at the heart of things, the au‐ to remove Jews from central Prague (p. 117). thor argues that its clearance clearance was both As evidence of how complex these matters a cause and an effect of modernization, anti- were, one might expect the leaders of the Prague Semitism, and the end of liberal hegemony in Jewish community to oppose the destruction of Prague politics. This is a complex argument and the city quarter where Jews had lived out their one that requires a fair amount of elaboration on lives for many hundreds of years. Instead, Giusti‐ Giustino's part, given the paucity of available no shows us how Jewish municipal leaders took a scholarship on two of the three central aspects of pragmatic approach to the fnis ghetto plan, offer‐ the story. ing little opposition, and even supporting certain One part of her argument is fairly well known aspects of it. For one thing, the clearance project already. The history of rising anti-Semitism in was evidence to these Jewish leaders (as opposed late-Imperial Bohemia is a story well told by au‐ to the many poor Jews who were displaced when thors such as Hillel Kieval, Gary Cohen, and oth‐ their homes were demolished) of the end of ghet‐ ers. What Giustino's book contributes to the exist‐ toization--a different sort of fnis ghetto than the ing literature on Czech anti-Semitism is a case framers of the project envisioned. H-Net Reviews What had been the point of the project? City fully--a story that likely could be told in many oth‐ leaders who made the decision to clear Josefov of er cities of late-Habsburg Austria. its old buildings, and replace them with new, For example, the Compromise of 1896 is more modern housing and commercial struc‐ sometimes portrayed as a last ditch effort by the tures, wanted to accomplish several things. At the Old Czech Party to hold off the Young Czech chal‐ top of their list was the removal of what they saw lenge. What Giustino demonstrates is that the as a blight on central Prague--a neighborhood of Compromise served the interests of both parties-- sub-standard structures with poor hygiene and of an Old Czech Party that was fading fast at the too many poor residents that could be converted provincial and imperial level, and a Young Czech into a thriving modern commercial and residen‐ Party facing both serious dissent within its ranks tial district at the heart of the city. That this goal and the arrival of new mass parties on the scene was accomplished by the clearance project is evi‐ at the very moment of its ascendancy. By dividing dent today when one strolls through Josefov--but up the seats on the Prague city council between at the cost of the destruction of some of Prague's them, both parties were able to hold onto what most significant architectural landmarks and at a each valued most--a semblance of importance in high social cost. The only remnants of old Josefov Czech politics for the Old Czechs and party unity that remain are the old Jewish cemetery and the for the Young Czechs. synagogues surrounding it. For all its strengths, this book is not an un‐ In addition to describing the effect of the fnis qualified success. In the fnal section of the book ghetto project on Prague's Jewish community, this Giustino argues that dissent over ghetto clearence book provides a detailed examination of the inner among leaders of the Prague Czech elite "contrib‐ workings of Prague municipal politics in the late- uted to the fragmentation of the Czech middle Habsburg period. As such, it is the frst detailed class and the Czech nation" (p. 205). This rather account in English both of the mechanisms of broad claim is not well supported by the evidence those politics and of the intricacies of the competi‐ the author provides. For one thing, as is apparent tion between the Old and Young Czech parties for from the example just mentioned, it is possible to power within the city. Scholars interested in how conclude from the evidence presented that the the larger competition between these two parties clearance project actually helped members of the played out at the local level will fnd much in Prague Czech elite to maintain at least a tenuous Giustino's book to admire. The author thus ex‐ working relationship beyond the useful lifetime tends the narratives of Bruce Garver's Young of such an association. Czech Party and Gary Cohen's Politics of Ethnic At least as important as the fnis ghetto Survival in ways that make it possible for us to project to the changing face of Prague politics, see how the rising Young Czech Party managed to however, was the rise of other political parties in establish itself as a force in Prague municipal poli‐ Prague at the end of the 1890s--clerical, socialist, tics.[1] More important in many ways is the au‐ and national socialist--that challenged the Old and thor's description of how the Old Czech Party Young Czech Parties' claims to legitimacy in mu‐ managed to maintain a significant position in the nicipal politics. Although blocked from any access Prague government despite being all but dis‐ to municipal power by the Compromise of 1896, placed by the Young Czechs at the provincial and these parties rapidly displaced the Old and Young imperial levels. Giustino shows us how this for‐ Czech Parties as representatives of Prague in the merly dominant Czech Party manipulated the imperial parliament, and used their electoral vic‐ mechanisms of municipal politics quite success‐ tories over their liberal rivals to call into question 2 H-Net Reviews the liberals' hegemony in local politics. While the ing errors and at least one mathematical error (on Czech National Socialist Party was openly anti- page 224 the author asserts that the 264 votes Semitic and, as Giustino points out, strongly in fa‐ Christian Social candidates received represented vor of the clearance project, it is a stretch to argue 13.24% of the 3,495 votes cast instead of the 7.55% that dissent over the clearance contributed to this total actually represents). While none of these fragmentation of Czech middle class politics or of editorial problems takes away from the depth of the Czech nation. More relevant to the fragmenta‐ Giustino's research or from the importance of tion of Czech middle class politics was the grow‐ portions of her analysis of late-Habsburg Prague ing radicalization of nationalist politics that si‐ politics, they do make the book a difficult and phoned support from the Young Czech Party and sometimes frustrating read. the success of the Czech Clerical Parties that large‐ Despite the criticisms leveled in the second ly undercut what was left of Old Czech influence half of this review, Giustino's book remains a wor‐ in Bohemia and Moravia. Neither of these larger thy addition to the library of any specialist in developments--which were provincial or even Czech or Austrian history. Because the author kingdom-wide rather than merely municipal--was casts a new and more detailed light on Prague influenced in any significant way by issues arising municipal politics, readers will be challenged to from the finis ghetto project. consider their assumptions about the history of A second example of Giustino's tendency to Prague and to ask themselves how different that see larger events too much through a municipal history might look when other lenses are used. lens is the author's description of the Badeni tu‐ Note mult. A novice reader would come away from this [1]. Bruce M. Garver, The Young Czech Party book assuming that the Badeni riots were essen‐ 1874-1901 and the Emergence of a Multi-Party tially a series of anti-Semitic riots by Czechs System Yale Historical Publications, Miscellany against their Jewish neighbors, rather than a com‐ 111. (New Haven and London: Yale University plex upwelling of both Czech and German anger Press, 1978); Gary B. Cohen, The Politics of Ethnic over the possible consequences of language re‐ Survival: Germans in Prague 1861-1914 (Prince‐ form in the Bohemian lands. To be sure, much of ton: Princeton University Press, 1981). the anger of Prague Czechs was directed against the Prague Jewish community--but that is because the Badeni tumult was largely a Czech-German af‐ fair and for many Prague Czechs the Jews were German (or Jew-Germans as the National Socialist Press was fond of calling them).
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