A visit to Josefov will show you what remains of the old Jewish Quarter of Prague. Although much of it has been destroyed and built over by modern buildings, you can still get a feel for its past and visit the synagogues and cemetery overseen by the Jewish Museum.
The Jewish population of Prague began to be persecuted during the Crusades and was eventually contained in a walled ghetto. Periods of relative prosperity and peace, with a certain degree of self-administration, alternated with oppression and horrific massacres.
Ironically, the survival of much of the Old Quarter and many of the artefacts in the Jewish Museum's collection is due to the Nazis, who assembled the objects and marked out the sites for a museum of an 'extinct race'.
Josefov is between the Old Town Square and the Vltava River. You can take a tour between the various sites of the museum with an English-speaking guide.
