New Stolpersteine in Pilsen commemorate Zuzana Růžičková’s Jewish family

The memory of the family of world-renowned harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková is now commemorated in her hometown of Pilsen by Stolpersteine (Stumbling Stones), which symbolically restore the names and dignity of her family members to the city’s streets. The stones were laid on April 15, 2026 – the day we also commemorate the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp (1945), which Zuzana Růžičková herself survived at the end of the war.

Růžičková was sent away on a transport less than two weeks after her fifteenth birthday, and during the war she was held in the camps at Terezín, Auschwitz, and Bergen-Belsen. Růžičková’s father, her grandparents, her aunt and uncle, her cousin, and her female cousin all perished in the concentration camps. Only Zuzana and her mother Leopoldina survived to see the end of the war. Newly laid stones at three locations in Pilsen commemorate her father Jaroslav, her grandfather Jindřich and grandmother Pavla, her uncle Karel and aunt Kamila, as well as other family members – her cousins Miloš and Dagmar.

“Every memorial stone laid as part of the Stolpersteine Plzeň 2026 project serves as a concrete reminder of a life cut short. The Stolpersteine return both the story and the dignity to those who were torn from their homes and daily lives. At the same time, they serve as a reminder that we must never again allow hatred or prejudice to prevail over humanity,” said Eliška Bartáková, Pilsen City Councilor for Culture and Heritage Preservation.

The ceremonial placing of the stones was also attended by David Procházka, mayor of Pilsen’s Third District, and Aleš Březina, chairman of the Viktor Kalabis and Zuzana Růžičková Foundation, who read excerpts from Zuzana Růžičková’s memoirs and spoke briefly about her life:

“Yet she only became Jewish because of Hitler – until then, they had been an assimilated family living a normal life like the rest of the Czech population. It was a family that considered itself unquestionably Czech; her father was a member of Sokol, and they were part of Pilsen’s cultural life. […] But she viewed that experience as just one of many in her life. She didn’t want to be reduced to just a few years of the Holocaust and the fate of the Jewish people. For her, it was essential that she was allowed to make music, that she could record Bach’s complete works. She said she would hate for what Hitler had done to overshadow what she had created during the more than 50 years of her life after the war.”

Pilsen is already preparing for 2027, when we will commemorate the 100th anniversary of this exceptional artist’s birth (January 14, 1927). A commemorative plaque at the Pilsen Conservatory, where she studied from 1945 to 1947, still honors her memory. The Pilsen Philharmonic plans to include a concert dedicated to her legacy in the Smetana Days festival. At the same time, plans are already underway to establish a festival bearing Zuzana Růžičková’s name, which, in cooperation with the Viktor Kalabis and Zuzana Růžičková Foundation, the City of Pilsen, the local Jewish community, and the diocese, would commemorate her legacy and focus on both early and modern music.