My father had once mentioned to me the town of Strakonice located in Czechoslovakia. That was a place where the Pereles family had roots. I really didn’t give it a second thought until the Shaare Emeth Heritage trip to Eastern Europe. Where was Strakonice in relation to Prague I wondered? Well, it was about an hour south of Prague so I arranged to have a driver take me there and visit the cemetery where I was sure, after conducting some on-line research, there were Pereles’ buried. This desire to visit the ..cemetery became more important after seeing the Pereles name in Terezin and in Prague when listing individuals who had died in the Holocaust.
Jan Blazek, a 2nd year law student, picked me up at our hotel and drove straight to the cemetery which is located between 2 farm homes just west of Strakonice. The problem was that the gate to the cemetery was locked. We asked the owner of the house located to the east of the cemetery if she had a key and her response was no, you had to go to the city offices and get it. Off we went to where she directed us, but it was to no avail. We ended up 2 stops later at the offices of the Castle Museum, where Blanka Madova gave us the key to the lock on the cemetery gate. She even recognized the Pereles name as she had done some previous research of which I will try to get a copy. We then went back to the cemetery. I donned my yamaka and entered this very holy ground
The cemetery was founded at the end of the 17th century. Research indicates that the oldest legible inscription is from 1736. The cemetery is surrounded by a high stone wall that I would have tried climbing over if we hadn’t gotten a key. The wall has protected the graves from desecration. A small house that was used as a mortuary is still there. While my research indicates that the last funeral took place in the 60’s, I didn’t see any tombstones after the early 40’s. I may have just missed them. There were no funeral services during World War II as the Jews were transported out of Strakonice. By the way, there is a Shoa monument in town near the castle.
While I can’t say for certain how I am related to any of the Pereles’ whose names I have seen over the last few days (that research will continue), I can say for certain, that I believe I personally lost family members during the Holocaust. They may have been distant family members, but family members all the same. This trip now has become my personal heritage trip as one of my great grandfathers was born in Budapest on December 22, 1877. Thank you Rabbi Bennett for encouraging me to go on this trip and thank you Brenda for joining me. I hasten to point out that this trip was not high on my bucket list and I still will never buy a German car!
-Joe Pereles
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