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Witness History: The lost Czech scrolls

The lost Czech scrolls

BBC World Service - Witness History, The lost Czech scrolls

The Torah scrolls stolen by the Nazis, rescued by an London Jewish community.

Witness History hears the tale of the Torah scrolls stolen by the Nazis and rescued by a group from a London synagogue over 20 years later.

On 5 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 Philippa Bernard about the emotional charge of that day.

A CTVC production for the BBC Radio 4.
(Photo: Philippa Bernard beside the scrolls in Westminster Synagogue. Credit: BBC)

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