Today, September 1, marks the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II — the global conflict that encompassed the Holocaust and brought devastation to the Jewish world in Europe.
It is also the 20th anniversary of the European Day(s) of Jewish Culture (EDJC) — a pan-European festival of tourism and education that focuses on Jewish culture, creativity, and life and is marked by hundreds of events in more than 25 countries around the continent.
To mark the anniversary, we attention you to JHE Director Ruth Ellen Gruber’s reflection on the EDJC — she took part in the 1999 meeting that established the event.
We also here post a brief photo essay showing before and after images of some of the synagogues and other Jewish sites that suffered destruction and devastation during WW2, and in its aftermath and the run-up to it — and which have been restored and repaired to stand proud today.
Many if not most synagogues that have undergone restoration in recent years are used as cultural spaces, while some once derelict places are now again used for worship.
Worms, Germany
Boskovice, Czech Republic
Zamosc, Poland
Budapest (Grave of the prolific synagogue architect Lipot Baumhorn)
Oświęcim, Poland
Mlada Boleslav, Czech Republic
Trnava, Slovakia
6 comments on “September 1: on the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of WW2 and 20th anniversary of the European Day(s) of Jewish Culture — a photo essay of before and after pix of restored Jewish heritage sites”
Love.
Thank you for posting. I am too filled with mixed emotions to properly describe them.
Thanks a lot for the picture and all.
Perla Levi
Argentina
Thank you for posting the before-and-after images. They provide a sampling of some of the most beautiful that Jewish culture had accomplished throughout Europe before the Holocaust. They also serve as witnesses to the contemporary spirit and commitment that has produced the restorations.
Including Lipot Baumhold’s tombstone was highly appropriate: he was the architect of some seventeen synagogues in Hungary, and the image of his overgrown tombstone, reminiscent of what Maya temples looked like when they were rediscovered, shows the state of disrepair of much of the Jewish heritage left in Europe. The epitaph on the Baumhold tombstone declares (my translation):
“I just stayed with the great historical styles. My temples and secular buildings always started from a traditional architectural thought. But I was never a slavish copier.”
This may have been intended as a posthumous dig on the then-burgeoning Secessionist style in Hungary, derived from the Europe-wide Art Nouveau introduced there by Lechner Ödön and practiced by the partnership of Komor Marcel and Jakab Dezső, the architects of the Synagogue in Subotica, Serbia (Fair disclosure: Jakab Dezső was the husband of my mother’s aunt, Irén Taussig).
Steven Fenves
I read about the many projects happening in the Ukraine … and I know that people have been to what is left of the cemetery at Stanesti de jos. Are there any plans to do any restoration work there in the future.
In a Jahrzeit book published about Unter Stanetie, the author has a crude sketch of the cemetery and of the synagogue that once was in the town. Do we know where it was? Is there anything marking the site?
The best reference I have found to Stanestie is a small book published in French called Basilic by Madeleine Kahn. She now lives in Tel Aviv. She witnessed all the events of July 1941 as a small child. Her survival was a miracle.
ON ANOTHER TOPIC … I did a Yiddish book project with my design students. None of my kids are Jewish, yet we still made this a pretty meaningful exercise.
Thanks so much for posting these extraordinary photos