UNDER OCCUPATION, A JEWISH MAN IS HANGED

Broadside, 25" x 19", bilingual German and Czeck, printed on bright red paper. The text is, "Announcement! Oswald Stratil from LubnT, KromerfP district, sentenced to death as a public enemy by the Moravian Wehrmacht Court for attempted theft and sabotage, was executed on August 20, 1941. He cut a telephone cable in several places. His accomplice was sentenced to twelve years in prison. Brno, August 20, 1941." Given the history of Kromeriz, it is very likely Oswald Stratil was Jewish. According to the 1930 census, 356,830 persons in the Czechoslovak Republic identified themselves as Jews by religion: 117,551 in Bohemia and Moravia, 136,737. After the breakup of Czechoslovakia, approximately 118,310 persons defined as Jews lived in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. KROMERIZ (Czech KromerfP; Ger. Kremsier), town in central Moravia, Czech Republic. The Jewish community of Kromeriz was among the oldest in Europe. In 1689 Kromeriz was considered the most important and most affluent Moravian community and from then until 1697 it was the seat of the country rabbinate. After the Nazi occupation (1939) shehitah was forbidden. The Czech population paid little attention to the antisemitic laws promulgated in 1940. However, the Nazis attempted to blow up the synagogue; the community was deported in 1942.