Page:The History of a Lie (1921).djvu/27

 trading and profiteering in their own as well as in other parts of the city. Prague is the only city in Germany where the Jews live entirely isolated from the nation whose name they have taken in order to avail themselves of the privileges of the city population and to exploit it for their own purposes. The Jewish quarter in Prague is the same as the rag-fair in Vienna and the Temple in Paris. In these places deals amounting to thousands are transacted daily.

“If you take a few steps along this dirty, foul market-place, you will suddenly come upon an old, high, decayed wall which surrounds a space of from two to three acres. Elder-trees and other wild shrubbery wind around this wall. Old Jewish houses are crowded all along near this wall, threatened with destruction at any moment. The strange circle formed by this wall has an unwelcome, puzzling appearance.

“This is the city of the dead—the renowned Prague cemetery.

“In this abode of rest may be seen the spirit of the nation, whose bones found shelter here after long wandering,—here is stamped all its history, full of sufferings, struggles and resistance.

“It seems as though at any moment these tombs, overgrown with shrubbery, are ready to open, these stones growing for thousands of years are ready to raise themselves, and to let out into the world the restless wanderer with a pack upon his shoulder, with a staff in his hand, in order to go again to strange peoples,—to cheat and combat them and to seek a new Canaan—his dominion! The Jewish cemetery in Prague is the very oldest cemetery known. It was closed by order of the government a hundred years ago. For foreigners it is a historical landmark; for the Jews it is a sacred place. The impression of this deserted spot is intensified by its surroundings. Amidst the closely crowded tombs and monuments, overgrown with moss, only a narrow passage remains which is almost entirely covered with shrubbery of thorn-bushes and mat-weed.

“During the inspection, the watchman will tell the visitor the history of the death of Rabbi Ben Manasseh, the great conqueror of death, and Rabbi Loewe, the most learned Rabbi of the 17th century; he will speak of Simon the Just and of the Polish princess Anna Shmiless. He will then lead the visitor to the monument of Anna Kohn on which can be read the mysterious figure 606, which shows that the Jews, more than twelve hundred