A light in the darkness: Remembering Germany's destroyed synagogues

Inaugurating the synagogue in 1900, then Dortmund Mayor Karl Wilhelm Schmieding called what is now known as the Old Synagogue a "jewel for the city, built to last for centuries." At the time, it was one of the largest in Germany. But his statement would be proven wrong. In 1938, the Nazis forced the Jewish community to sell it and began demolishing it on November 9, when the pogroms began.

On November 10, 1938, members of the Nazi paramilitary groups the SS and SA set fire to the synagogue in Siegen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Many onlookers watched it burn. Jews were charged for the clearing of the ruins. The bunker that was built in its place in 1941 still stands. An image of the burning synagogue was projected next to the bunker.

One of the Frankfurt synagogues was also purposely set ablaze. Firefighters were dispatched, but did not intervene. And this synagogue, too, was later replaced by a bunker, which is still standing despite the surrounding neighborhood's being badly damaged by air raids in World War II. A projection of the synagogue could be seen on the bunker's wall

The synagogue in Bamberg, Bavaria, was also burned down during the night of November 9, 1938. The Jewish community leader at the time, Willy Lessing, was fatally injured by a mob while trying to save the Torah scrolls, and the fire department was prevented from extinguishing the blaze. Eighty-three years later, pictures of the synagogue could be seen on a screen where the building once stood.

According to the architect Edwin Oppler, the New Synagogue in Hanover, the capital of the state of Lower Saxony, which was finished in 1870, was "the first built in German style." One of the major sources of inspiration was the Aachen Cathedral, which was consecrated in the ninth century. This did not prevent the Nazis from destroying it in November 1938.

The Hamburg Bornplatz Synagogue was also destroyed. On July 14, 1939, the Hamburger Tageblatt newspaper cynically reported the demolition: "Where there are still a few sad ruins today, a friendly green space will soon make everyone happy." Now you can see the synagogue as a virtual reality representation. There are even plans to rebuild it.

The Fasanenstrasse Synagogue in the Berlin district of Charlottenburg was set on fire in 1938 and then completely destroyed during air raids in 1943. At the end of the 1950s, a Jewish community hall was built on the same site. It represents a new beginning for Jewish life in Berlin after the Holocaust. The destroyed synagogue was projected on the facade of the community hall.