In Luhačovice you can find the first Stones of the Disappeared

"The first five stones in the form of brass paving stones with the names of the disappeared Luhačovice citizens were installed in front of the Jelínka family's house in Masaryk Street on 19 December 2023. This date is related to the date on which members of the Jelínka family perished in the Auschwitz concentration camp," explains František Petrák from the Pramen Luhačovice Foundation.

Next year, the installation of the Stones of the Disappeared in Luhačovice will continue, with reminders appearing at two more locations. "This way of stumbling upon the Stones of the Disappeared, so to speak, and feeling the urge to find out more about these people, is a most dignified way of remembering the local victims of the Holocaust. That way they will never be forgotten," believes Deputy Mayor Daniel Mejzlík.

The villa where the first Stones of the Disappeared were discovered was built in the late 19th century by Solomon Jelinek, who had four children - Ella, Bedrich, Markéta and Marie. After his death, his son Bedřich Jelínek continued the family's innkeeping, trading and distilling business. His sisters married outside Luhačovice. Bedřich's sister Markéta, a year younger than him, was the only one of the Jelínek family from Luhačovice to survive the Holocaust.

Sisters Ella and Marie and their families were not so lucky, and neither was Bedřich Jelínek's family. During his forced stay in the Uherskobrod ghetto, where the Jews of Luhačovice were moved in May 1941, Bedřich Jelínek joined the anti-Nazi resistance. He was arrested, imprisoned for over a year and sentenced to death. He was executed in Wrocław on May 27, 1943. Bedřich's mother Flora and wife Markéta left Uherský Brod with their ten-year-old daughter Věra and three-year-old Jiřík on the last transport to Terezín. After less than a year in the Terezín camp, they were deported to Auschwitz. They were murdered in the gas chamber, probably on the day of their arrival, December 15, 1943.

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