Friedrich Knöpfelmacher

(Prague 1867 - Theresienstadt 1944)

In the last volume of the yearbook Ha-Asif - "The Harvest" in Hebrew, published in Warsaw by Nahum Sokolov - there are several references that allow us to clearly identify the owner. It is the rabbi and teacher Friedrich/Bedřich Knöpfelmacher. According to the Hebrew note that Knöpfelmacher left in the book, he received it from his father Salomon Knöpfelmacher, who was also a teacher and rabbi.

The sources with which we can trace Friedrich Knöpfelmacher's life are sparse, but they give us an impression of his dedicated work, especially as a religious educator.

Knöpfelmacher was born in Prague's Jewish ghetto and lived through the forced redevelopment of the area by the city authorities in the years before and after 1900. His father was already active there as a rabbi and also taught religion at Prague secondary schools. It has not yet been possible to determine where Knöpfelmacher received his education - it also appears that he was enrolled at a university, but did not complete his studies with the planned doctorate. In the course of his professional life, he worked in several places in Bohemia and Prague, both in the school sector (in Golčův Jeníkov/Goltsch-Jenikau, Litomyšl/Leitomischl, Lanškroun/Landskron, Zbraslav) and as a rabbi (in the communities of Nové Strašecí/Neu Straschitz and Liteň/Litten). In Prague itself, he apparently acted as rabbi in the Maisel Synagogue and also as preacher of the Prague Chevra Kadisha and preacher of the "Or-Tomid" association. The aim of this association was to cultivate the Czech and Hebrew languages in religious services. He also acted as director of the "Association of Israelite Religious Teachers at Secondary Schools in Bohemia", in which his father had also been active, and of the "Afike Jehuda" (Association for the Propagation of the Science of Judaism). The latter was founded in 1869 and bears the name of the Prague scholar Rabbi Jehuda Teweles. Friedrich Knöpfelmacher's connection to this association is no coincidence - his father Salomon was a student and son-in-law of Rabbi Teweles. According to the sources, Knöpfelmacher was also on the board of the "Society for the Promotion of Hebrew Language and Literature" and the "Israelitischer Fortbildungsverein". In an article from 1914/15, he spoke out in favor of reforming the teaching of Hebrew. In his opinion, the teaching of Hebrew in schools should not use modern linguistic methods, but should be based on the biblical text and its interpretations. Understanding the text would come naturally through constant repetition and alignment with the annual synagogue liturgy. We do not know how and whether Knöpfelmacher used his ideas in the classroom - his criticism of the contemporary Hebrew textbooks was probably also the trigger for him to edit and publish a textbook (תורת דת מורשה by Nathan Grün) for Czech-language teaching. It appeared on a list of teaching materials approved by the Ministry of Education in 1926. In Prague, Knöpfelmacher demonstrably taught religion and Hebrew at the Amerling School and at the Minerva School, the first girls' secondary school in Austria-Hungary. Knöpfelmacher was also involved for many years in editing the Czech-Jewish calendar (Kalendář česko-židovský), which was published by the "Association of Czech-Jewish Academics" (Spolek českých akademiků-židů). Knöpfelmacher was responsible for compiling the calendar section.

Friedrich Knöpfelmacher's wife Maylda/Mathilda, née Pereles, died in 1931. The two had married in 1893 in Nové Strašecí/Neu Straschitz. The different birthplaces of their children bear witness to the frequent moves the couple made. Of the children the couple had, these could be identified:

Richard, born in 1894, he died in 1921
1895-1942 Anežka/Agnes, murdered in Riga in 1942, together with her daughter Edita Zeckendorf (born 1923)
1897-1944 Karel/Karl, born in 1897, murdered in Auschwitz in 1944, father of Eva Knöpfelmacher (born in 1927, deported to Auschwitz a few days after her father and murdered there)
Rudolf Egon, born in 1898, no longer appears in the 1903 registration list and probably died as a child
Jindřich/Harry, born 1900, died 1968 in Dublin as Harold Cantor
Birth of a child in 1904, who died a few days after birth

Friedrich Knöpfelmacher last lived with his son Karl and his family at Truhlářská/Tischlergasse 1105/11, from where he was deported to Theresienstadt at the age of 75, where he died in April 1944.

Of Mathilda and Friedrich Knöpfelmacher's direct descendants, only Harry lived to see the end of the war: After serving in the First World War, he moved to Ireland, where he married in 1920. There he took the name Harold Cantor and founded a family to whose descendants we were able to hand over the book identified in Heidelberg.

There are two possible answers to the question of how the book ended up in the Jewish Museum in Prague after 1945 and finally in Heidelberg via Rabbi Emil Davidovič: 1) Friedrich Knöpfelmacher had the book with him when he was deported to Theresienstadt. After his death and after the liberation of the camp a year later, the book was part of the huge stock of books that had accumulated there. The books were later taken to Prague and many of them were deposited in the Jewish Museum. 2) Friedrich Knöpfelmacher gave his library - or parts of it - to the Jewish Museum in the hope that they would be in good hands there. In fact, a compilation of two pages (p.4f.) with book titles labeled with "Prag-Knöpfelmacher" still exists there today. It is very obvious that this refers to Friedrich Knöpfelmacher. The volume by Ha-Asif is not listed among the titles, but at the end of the list there is mention of a further 5 book packages. It is possible that the book was included in one of these packages. The abbreviations of the list editors (WN and TW) point to Moses Woskin-Nahartabi and his daughter Tamara Woskin, who themselves also deposited books in the museum before they were sent to their deaths.

Selected sources

Registration documents of the city of Prague:

https://katalog.ahmp.cz/pragapublica/permalink?xid=9CC103ED9BDE11E0815C002215111B5A&scan=1#scan1 (Salomon Knöpfelmacher)

http://katalog.ahmp.cz/pragapublica/permalink?xid=411BFBAD9BDC11E0815C002215111B5A&scan=1#scan1 (Friedrich Knöpfelmacher)

Residence permit from the city of Prague:

http://digi.nacr.cz/prihlasky2/index.php?action=link&ref=czarch:CZ-100000010:874&karton=274&folium=242 (Salomon Knöpfelmacher)

http://digi.nacr.cz/prihlasky2/index.php?action=link&ref=czarch:CZ-100000010:874&karton=274&folium=243 (Salomon Knöpfelmacher)

http://digi.nacr.cz/prihlasky2/index.php?action=link&ref=czarch:CZ-100000010:874&karton=274&folium=238 (Friedrich Knöpfelmacher)

https://digi.nacr.cz/prihlasky2/?session=8fa2e751099292071a18aa50d3089bff2b69566bfbbf34b5374dee5bc52101c5&action=image&record=1 (Friedrich Knöpfelmacher)

(Text: Ph. Zschommler)