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Object Alone
Memorial Plaque at the Site of the New Synagogue in Gliwice
Object Detail

Building Date
2003

Synagogue active dates

Reconstruction Dates

Architect/ Maker

Community
Unknown |

Location

Style
Unknown|

Material/Technique

Construction Material
Brick

Summary and Remarks

Suggested Reconsdivuction

History/Provenance

During the "Kristallnacht" (i.e. the night of 9th to 10th November 1938) the synagogue was burned by the Nazis. On 10 November 1938, the remaining ruins were blown out, and afterward a park and a playground covered the empty yard.

In 2002 the plot of land was purchased by a private owner.

Since 2003 the place of the synagogue has been commemorated with two plaques by Krzysztof Nitsch. On the upper decorative plaque, a Polish-Hebrew text has been inscribed: "A synagogue used to stand in this place between 1861 and 1938." On the lower plaque, a Polish-German text has been inscribed: "Setting fire to the synagogue during Kristallnacht, in the night of 9th to 10th November 1938, has become a symbol of the repression and persecution of the Gliwice Jewish community, which, for more than 150 years, co-shaped the history of this town. The deportations of over 600 members of the Jewish community to the Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp ended in December 1943".
In 2008, on the initiative of the "Memory-Zikaron" Assocation for Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Gliwice, the memorial plaques were cleaned.

(Text from Virtual Shtetl)


Condition

Present Usage
Abandoned

Present Usage Details

Historical significance: Event/Period

Historical significance: Collective Memory/Folklore

Historical significance: Person

Architectural Significance: Style

Architectural Significance: Artistic Decoration

Urban significance

Significance Rating
1 (Local)

Condition of Building Fabric
E (No return)

Bibliography
Bergman, Eleonora and Jan Jagelski, Zachowane synagogi i domy modlitwy w Polsce. Katalog. (Warsaw, 1996), p. 43 with ill.; Przemysław Burchard, Pamiątki i zabytki kultury Żydowskiej w Polsce (Warszawa, 1990), p. 189; Eleonora Bergman, Nurt mauretański w architekturze synagog Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej w XIX i na początku XX wieku (Warszawa, 2004), p.159-162, ill. 151-154; Barbara Małecka, "Zabytki żydowskie w Gliwicach," in Narody i polityka. Studia ofiarowane profesorowi Jerzemu Tomaszewskiemu, eds. August Grabski and Artur Markowski (Warsaw, 2010), pp. 323-335; http://www.sztetl.org.pl/en/image/101169/

Short Name
Full Name
Volume
Page
Biography

Photographer
Photograph Date
2009

Remarks

0 Coordinates: 50.295452, 18.666018