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Witness History

The lost Czech scrolls

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.41.6K Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2024

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On 7 February 1964, an unusual delivery was made to a synagogue in London.

More than 1,500 Torah scrolls, lost since the end of World War Two, were arriving from Czechoslovakia.

The sacred Jewish texts had belonged to communities destroyed by the Nazis.

Alex Strangwayes-Booth talks to 91-year-old Philippa Bernard about the emotional charge of that day.

A CTVC production for the BBC World Service.

(Photo: Philippa beside the scrolls in Westminster Synagogue. Credit: BBC)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

If you could have a conversation with your younger self, what would you tell them?

0:06.0

Anonymity is our most valuable gift.

0:09.0

I'm Kirstie Young, and in Young again, I'll be asking my guests what honest advice they would give their past self.

0:16.0

Believe it when they say that loving yourself is the answer.

0:20.0

Among those joining me will be Jamie Oliver, Jeda Pinkett Smith and Mel B.

0:24.2

I knew that I had a voice and I knew that I wanted to say certain things and represent certain things.

0:30.1

Young again, with me, Kirstie Young,

0:33.0

listen on BBC Sounds. Hello, welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Alex

0:46.8

Strangway's Booth. I'm taking you back 60 years to London in February 1964.

0:55.0

It's nearly 20 years since the end of the Second World War,

1:01.0

but Jewish art and sacred objects stolen by the Nazis are still being

1:06.5

discovered hidden all over Europe.

1:10.7

Among them are many Torah scrolls, held sacred by the Jewish community

1:14.5

containing the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.

1:18.0

At the weekly Sabbath service reading a section of the Torah scroll is central to the worship.

1:27.0

In 1964 at a synagogue in West London a group of people are waiting for

1:36.7

delivery of over 1500 faded and delicate Torah scrolls which they've rescued from an abandoned synagogue in Prague.

1:47.6

I remember very clearly the day they arrived. It was raining.

1:53.0

very cold.

1:55.8

The scrolls were coming over from Czechoslovakia on the back of two large flatbed lorries. They'd come across Europe and they were coming to London and

2:07.4

they were going to turn into this tiny turning opposite the park and we were to be there to unload and we didn't know what to expect.

2:19.4

Among the volunteers there to greet and unload the scrolls is Philippa Bernard, then in her early 30s and a founder

...

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