Abstract
In this presentation, which is part of my thesis, I describe the status of Jewish pharmacists in pharmacies on the territory of interwar Czechoslovakia and their fate during World War II. In interwar Czechoslovakia, Jews comprised 2.42 percent of all citizens which was considerably less than in other Eastern European countries.
According to the census of 1930, 362 530 Jews (by faith) lived in Czechoslovakia. The representation of Jewish population in mainstream Czechoslovak society varied geographically.
The Carpathian Ruthenia had the highest percentage of Jews by faith (14.4 percent), followed by Slovakia (4.14 percent) and Moravia and Silesia (1.16 percent). Bohemia had the lowest ratio of Jews in mainstream Czechoslovak society (1.07 percent).(Kolektiv, Statistická ročenka Republiky československé, 1938) 1) The first Jewish students entered pharmacy studies at the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague by the end of the seventies of the nineteenth century.
From 1867 to 1918, only a few Jewish students registered each academic year. Elsa Fantová was the first Jewish woman who completed her studies of pharmacy in 1908 in the German part of the University.
After creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918, students from Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia came to Prague to study pharmacy (the newly established state did not recognize foreign professional qualifications). The number of Jewish students had grown and each academic year dozens of them completed their studies.