The main investigation

Technique:
2x cameras
2x ghostmeter
2x dictaphone
2x camera
lighting
thermometer

The Jewish cemetery in České Budějovice stands alone on Pekárenská Street about half a kilometre from the viaduct. A report has reached us that years ago some local young men tried to summon ghosts; they climbed over the wall, brought candles and started summoning. Then the flames burst into a high flame and unexplained noises filled the overgrown area. It was enough to send the group on the run and they never forgot this moment. We were told vicariously about it from a reliable source, and so we set out to explore the mysterious Jewish cemetery on our own.

It is divided into several sections, the oldest dating back to the nineteenth century. The youngest graves are from the post-war period, when a group of surviving Budějovice Jews restored the entire cemetery, as it was not treated very gently during the Protectorate.

Today, the Jewish cemetery is only a silent memory of the times when the Jewish community resided in Budějovice. The Jews in Budějovice have almost died out, the community has been dissolved and you can only visit the stone monuments of the ancient society that lived here and left behind this place with a chapel, which today functions as a small museum of Jewish history.

We arrive at dusk and immediately unpack our equipment. We take our first camera shots and plan the placement of our equipment in the sections we have prepared according to the map. We have everything planned, the investigation can begin.

We have our first strange feelings at the very beginning, but we can rationalize them by the fact that we are just looking around, yet we feel a chill and sometimes we turn around under the impression that someone is behind us. But these feelings subside after a short time. For a while we move into the chapel, which is now actually more like a small museum. We ask if someone wants to interact with us, knock on the furniture, touch us, but nothing happens, everywhere is quiet. So we set out on a second, already night tour, leaving one camera alone in the room with the ghostmeter and the recorder, in case something happens, so that we have it on record.

Outside, we light candles at several graves, try to speak Czech, English and German, while the second recorder is still recording our expedition, but it is still quiet. We return with the unmade and shortly after our arrival in the room, when we both speak out loud to make sure the dictaphone is recording our voices, we capture two EVPs.

Besides recording the sound, we also try to use our cameras with which we take one photo after another. The more interesting of the photos can be found in the link below the article, and the two photos raise questions for us. The first one shows a green nebula; none of us have seen it and we haven't captured anything like it anywhere else. Although this phenomenon is interesting, it may be indicative of some defect, poor lighting from a flashlight that got mixed into the flash or a fogged lens. There are more rational explanations than paranormal ones, so we are posting this photo as a point of interest so that everyone can make up their own minds about it (link to photo album below the article).

The second photograph, however, has a framed light and a human face looming in front of it. It is out of the city lights and there is nothing like it in any other photo. It still raises questions in our minds and we will definitely go to the cemetery again to confirm its authenticity. However, you can make up your own mind about it.

During our last walk around the cemetery we try to provoke a little activity, bargain and express our wish that the spirits would extinguish the candles we have lit, but nothing happens. We feel at most a holy calm.

The clock reads around midnight as we finish our investigation. With a quantum of camera footage, dictaphone and photographs, we leave this place. For an experience, it was very weak; emotionally, we expected much more. But, as far as the footage is concerned, it served its purpose and, at the very least, we will return to this site to confirm that our results are indeed of paranormal origin.

Additional investigation

It is 28 September 2013 and our investigation team returns to the Jewish cemetery in České Budějovice after dark.

It was August when we visited this place for the first time. We shot a couple of EVPs in the building, which we thought was a chapel at the time, but in the newly acquired facts the local undertaker actually lived there, and outside in the cemetery itself we captured two interesting photos. It is (mostly) because of these that we keep returning to the site. 

Our investigation this time begins before entering the cemetery, when we photograph all possible light sources in the area that could rationally explain one of the two photos, which shows a point of light in which the outline of a human face can be seen.

At the cemetery itself, we go straight to the grave of Pavlíček Kende, from where the photographs depicting a possible paranormal phenomenon were taken. Ondřej separates himself from the healer Aima and goes to the place where he was standing when the photograph was taken. Aima takes several photos.

"It's here," he exclaims, and it is clear at that moment that the paranormal phenomenon is not a paranormal phenomenon, but a rational phenomenon. At that moment, the second phase of this clarification begins, figuring out what was behind the cause of this light, so that next time we are already enlightened on the matter and take notice of it directly.

In the darkness we can't see any light, but in the photos it is clearly visible. It is therefore obvious that it is a reflection of the lightning. So we take one photograph after another and slowly approach the point where the light is coming from. It then occurs to Ondrej that he may try to see the reflection in the flash. So he strains his eyes to the appropriate places, overcomes the reflex to close his eyelids against the flash and sees a small rectangular sign whose blue glow reflects so brightly from the flash that the camera catches it at a distance of 50-60 metres.

After the initial disappointment, we are filled with joy, because the journey fulfils its purpose and we can indeed say unequivocally that the photograph in question is not of paranormal origin and even say why. So we continue to clarify the second photograph, but as well as we try to mimic the conditions, we just can't get the green-looking nebula to work. Therefore, we conclude this photograph by stating that we cannot substantiate either a paranormal or a rational origin. We leave this to each individual.

During this brief investigation, we are still trying to make contact with the other side with attempts to record the EVP, both in the cemetery and inside the room used as a museum. Unfortunately, no EVP has been detected from additional listening, nor have we observed any possible ghostly phenomena during the investigation.

At the very end, we still filmed an epilogue for a short documentary about the investigation at this location and left the house around midnight.

Result of the investigation

The Jewish cemetery in České Budějovice is a beautiful place of which the inhabitants of this town can be justly proud. It is a quiet rectangular plot, rather reminiscent of a park with many tombstones and graves. Quiet is the important word here, because that is exactly what it is... quiet, pleasant. From the results we have, we can hardly conclude that it's haunted. There may be paranormal activity here, of course, as there is everywhere else, but it is not out of line with the standards that can be detected in other common places. Potential visitors who are not provoked here are at minimal risk of a paranormal experience. Indeed, peace truly reigns here.

Quiet place

video of the investigation

• in Czech, without English subtitles