Prague is one of the oldest Jewish Centres in Central Europe and the Jewish Community has over one thousand years of history. Most of the Jewish sites of Prague are in the Josefov, The Jewish Quarter. When this was redeveloped in the 1890’s it had deteriorated into an insanitary slum with only 20% of the population being still Jewish as rising prosperity and legal changes had allowed successful Jewish families to move to other parts of Prague. It was still the cultural centre of the community containing the Jewish Town Hall, Synagogues and old buildings and the Old Jewish Cemetery although burials were now held at the New Cemetery. For most of its history Prague had been a multiethnic city with important Czech, German, and (mostly Czech- and/ or German-speaking) Jewish populations. From 1939, when the country was occupied by Nazi Germany, and during World War II, most Jews either fled the city or were killed in the Holocaust. - David Caldwell