Overview
The Holocaust in Czechoslovakia took different courses in the three distinct parts of the country. In the area of the current Czech Republic, Nazi Germany imposed its direct rule after the Munich Agreement of September 1938 and the annexation of Bohemia and Moravia in March 1939. (Slovakia declared independence and became allied to Nazi Germany.) Nazi authorities soon thereafter introduced various regulations that excluded Jews from economic and public life and established the Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Prague in an effort to force the emigration of Czech Jews. By the fall of 1941, however, the first trains left for the concentration camp established in Terezin (Theresienstadt). From there, Jews were deported to extermination camps in Eastern European countries in 1942-1944. About 80,000 out of 120,000 Czech Jews living in Bohemia and Moravia prior to the war were killed. As of mid-2019, the Jewish population of the Czech Republic was estimated at 10,000-14,000 people, of whom 3,500 were registered members of Jewish communities.
In June 2009, Czech Prime Minister Fischer hosted 46 countries at the Prague Holocaust Era Assets Conference in Prague and Terezin. (Two other states, Serbia and the Holy See, joined as observers.) Delegations discussed the restitution of wrongfully seized or nationalized property from the Holocaust era and the welfare of Holocaust survivors, as well as Holocaust education and commemoration. Conference participants drafted the Terezin Declaration on Holocaust Era Assets and Related Issues, and it was endorsed by all 46 participating countries and subsequently also by Serbia.
While the Government of the Czech Republic remains generally committed to the goals and objectives of the Terezin Declaration and has adopted laws and mechanisms that allow for some property restitution, there have been challenges in practice, especially for claimants who live outside the country or do not have Czech citizenship.