Kristallnacht Commemorations Focus on Polish Synagogue Restorations
by Samuel Gruber

NOVEMBER 10, 1998.  Events across Poland this week are marking the 60th anniversary of Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass), the day of Nazi orchestrated destruction of German Jewish property and synagogues.
    Ceremonies at historic synagogues at Wroclaw (formerly Breslau, Germany), Cracow, and Auschwitz (Oswiencim in Polish) will commemorate the two-day rampage across Germany and German-annexed Austria, when an estimated 1,400 synagogues were demolished and burned, Jewish homes and stores were vandalized and looted, and 30,000 German Jews and 8,000 Austrian Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps.
    The destruction of Polish Jewry began less than a year later, when German troops crossed into Poland in September 1939.  Today, many view Kristallnacht as the first act of the Holocaust – which would over the next five years consume the Jewish communities of Central and Eastern Europe.
    To commemorate the events of November 1938, an interfaith group of dignitaries gathered on the evening of November 8th in Wroclaw, Poland.  There, government, Catholic Church and Jewish groups joined to unveil a memorial at the site of one of the synagogues burned on that night.  Breslau then was home to Germany's second largest Jewish congregations and boasted two of the county’s most renowned synagogues – the Reform Temple, designed by prominent Jewish architect Edwin Oppler, and the White Stork (German name is Zum Weißem Storch) Synagogue, built in 1827-29 following designs by Karl Ferdinand Langhans, Jr.  The White Stork Synagogue was recently returned to the Jewish community and is being restored.
    Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek spoke at the monument dedication. "For 50 years we have been asking how such a horrible Holocaust could have been possible…despite the difficulties and barriers, I believe Jewish culture will become an integral part of the culture of the Polish Republic," he said to Reuters News Service.  Germany's consul in Wroclaw Roland Kliesow said "We Germans cannot cast the blame on an abstract fascist regime...We bear the blame for this."  An interfaith audience prayed together at the site, joined by the German and American ambassadors to Poland.
    According to Dr. Jerzy Kichler, a leader of Wroclaw's Jewish congregation, there are an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 practicing Jews in Lower Silesia, the region in which Wroclaw is located.  Others believe the number to be smaller.  For much of the past decade Kichler has led efforts to reclaim the White Stork Synagogue for the community and to have it restored.  He was recently elected head of the Union of  Polish Jewish Communities which is spearheading the campaign to have properties throughout the country returned to the Jewish Community.
In 1945, the Polish Communist government nationalized all property in the former German area of Poland.  The three-story neoclassical White Stork Synagogue, notable for its giant Corinthian pilasters on the east and west facades and other exterior classical detailing, continued to serve, however, as a prayer house until 1968.  As early as 1966, Wroclaw's Jewish community requested the formal transfer of rights.  The request was denied, and the synagogue was deeded to the University of Wroclaw in 1974.  In 1989, it was given to the Academy of Music, which sold the building in 1992 to a private firm.
    The Jewish community officially informed the government in the spring of 1992 that it wished to regain control of the synagogue as provided by general restitution laws of Poland regarding religious property seized by the communist government.  Not until April 21, 1995, after long and difficult negotiations, legal action and input from international supporters, did the Council of Ministers in Warsaw issue a decision that returned the synagogue to the Jewish Community of Wroclaw.
This year’s restitution law formalized that decision.  A grant for the renovation of the synagogue was awarded in 1995 by the Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation, but could not be used until title was clarified.  Restoration work has now begun, and the community is pursuing an ambitious fund raising campaign to finance the work, which is estimated at over $1 million.
    On November 9th, the Tempel Synagogue in Cracow, one of the best preserved synagogues in Poland, and the lone surviving example of the great 19th-century synagogues, was the site of another commemorative event.  The Tempel, currently being conserved and restored by the New York-based World Monuments Fund (WMF) will be open to the public throughout the day with tours and discussions of the preservation work now nearing completion.  Built in 1862 and enlarged in 1892-93 and again in 1924, Progressive Tempel was one of the most sumptuously decorated Polish synagogues.  During the interwar years its congregation was led by Rabbi Osiah Thon, a member of the Polish parliment and outspoken critic of Polish anti-Semitic policies.  Thon died in 1939.
    Scaffolding has just come down in the Tempel’s interior, revealing for the first time the breathtaking beauty of the sanctuary’s ceiling, which has been carefully cleaned.  Work will soon begin in the apse, behind the lavish Ark wall.  The structure and the exterior of the synagogue have already been restored by WMF in partnership with the Citizen’s Committee for the Protection of Cracow’s Monuments, a government funded group.  The WMF restoration was recently aided by a $150,000 grant from the J. Paul Getty Trust.  WMF needs to raise additional funds to match this grant and complete the project, begun in 1994.  Architects from WMF are meeting this week with their Polish counterparts to plan the final stages of restoration work.  According to WMF, when completed, the Tempel will remain a synagogue for local community use, but especially to provide a fitting prayer setting for the large number of Jewish groups pass through Cracow on visits to Auschwitz and elsewhere.
    To demonstrate this function, a commemorative program took place on Kristallnacht, organized by WMF, the Cracow Jewish Community, local city and regional officials, and the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation.  A delegation from the Foundation attended the event before heading to Auschwitz  (Oswiecim) today where a dedication ceremony will take place at the Chevra Lomdei Mishnayot Synagogue built c. 1900 and the only surviving synagogue building in the once largely Jewish town, which is to be restored as a synagogue and Jewish center within walking distance from the Auschwitz Death Camps.
    Representatives of the United States and Polish Governments will attend the ceremony, which will be followed by a Catholic Mass sponsored by the US Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad at the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Oswiecim.
In March of this year the synagogue become the first facility returned to the Polish Jewish Community under a new Polish law allowing for restitution of seized Jewish communal property.  Title has now been transferred to the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation which will be responsible for the restoration and management of the site. The Foundation plans to establish a cultural facility, housing the first permanent exhibit of the vital and diverse Jewish community that existed in Oswiecim and the surrounding areas before the Shoah.
    The restored synagogue and adjacent Center will be available for visitors who wish to pray and mourn and for those who wish to broaden their base of knowledge about Jewish life in the region.  The Center will offer an exhibition that includes artifacts from residents, survivors, and family members.  It will also offer kosher food.
    Oswiecim is a city with a rich and long history, where Jewish life and culture played a significant role for more than 500 years.  The Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps and the State Museum, situated outside Oswiecim, recall the tragic memories of the Shoah.  The Jewish Center, in contrast, will sit within the old town center several kilometers away from the camps.  The Center will depict and commemorate the life and culture of the Jewish victims by focusing on the largely unknown history of Jewish life in Oswiecim.
    The adaptation and restoration of the Lomdei Mishnayot Synagogue aims to provide a meaningful space for Jewish people to mourn and pray.  A Catholic Center and an International House already exist near the concentration camp sites but there is no specifically Jewish place for Jewish visitors.  The synagogue also holds interest for non-Jewish visitors as an example of a typical place of worship in a small community.
    In addition to the synagogue restoration, the adjacent building will be converted into an exhibition space, a small theater and lecture hall, a space for dialogues and meetings, and a vegetarian cafeteria.

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Last updated: January 4, 2003