PLAY PODCASTS
The lost Czech scrolls

The lost Czech scrolls

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

Witness History · BBC World Service

February 28, 20249m 10s

Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (open.live.bbc.co.uk) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.

Show Notes

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)