Kłodzko Synagogue
# Kłodzko Synagogue

The Synagogue of Kłodzko was located in Kłodzko (former German name: Glatz), in Kłodzko County in Lower Silesia, Poland. The synagogue was built 1884–1885 on the Grünestraße (Green Street), now Wojska Polskiego Street, but was destroyed in 1938 during the Nazi Kristallnacht anti-Jewish pogrom.

## History

The synagogue was built on the initiative of the Progressive Jews, according to the plans of architect Albert Grau (1837–1900) of Breslau (now Wrocław), a student of Georg Gottlob Ungewitter, in the style of the Neo-Moorish and Brick-neo-Gothic.

From 1742 Kłodzko was part of the Kingdom of Prussia, then Germany, until Silesia became Polish under border changes promulgated at the 1945 Potsdam Conference. During the November Pogrom (9 November 1938), termed "Kristallnacht" in German Nazi propaganda, the synagogue was destroyed in an arson attack by German Nazi gangs.

## Memory

Reinhard Schindler, a former Glatz citizen, developed the idea of having a memorial stone placed for the synagogue. The memorial stone was erected in 1995 with an anodised aluminum plaque in Polish, Hebrew and German commemorating the destroyed synagogue. The inscription reads:

    Here stood the Glatz synagogue, desecrated and burned by the Nazis in the Pogrom Night of November 9, 1938. Former German and current Polish citizens in 1995 – 50 years after the end of the war.

## Sculpture

In the years 2015–2016, the German sculptor Gerhard Roese [de] of Darmstadt created a sculpture of the synagogue made of cast aluminium weighing approx. 100 kilograms (220 lb). The collected materials, plans and sketches, together with photos and a description of the burning of the temple, was published as a book by Roese under the title: Decalogue on Fire. The artistic work under the same title includes the sculpture of the synagogue, a sculpture of the Ten Commandments above the portal, and a sculpture of one of the cast-iron gallery columns that collapsed during the fire in its rubble and ash bed. In addition, fifteen 1 × 1 meter (3.3 × 3.3 foot) large panels of photographs by Günter Veit and a synagogue with a fragment of a Torah scroll, probably stolen in Poland by a member of the Wehrmacht. In May 2018, Roese brought the entire work to Kłodzko with the help of a group of young people and donated it to the city. The sculpture and other materials from the exhibition of Roese were also in 2018 in the project Topography of Terror installed in Berlin and published in a catalog.

## Synagogue Revival

On the anniversary of the Reichsprogromnacht, also Kristallnacht on November 8, 2018, the Muzem Ziemi Kłodzkiej w Kłodzku [pl] (Museum of the Kłodzko Land), together with the sculptor from Darmstadt and the Polish activists Michał Cyprys, Henryk Grzybowski, Mieczysław Kowalcze and Grzegorz Sadowski, hosted an event commemorating the terror of 80 years ago and the former Jewish community under the motto Synagoga Reviva. Gerhard Roese talked about his idea and implementation of the sculpture model of the synagogue.

Students from various schools in Kłodzko and a group of adults participated. They learned what is known about the structure and its destruction today, as well as that of two surviving ladies, Ruth Prager and Shoshana Efrati, who had visited the synagogue in their childhood. Henryk Grzybowski told about their fate from former Glatz, to Chile and Israel.

After a small concert with Yiddish and Hebrew songs performed by Sylwia Grzybowska, those in attendance went to the synagogue memorial stone and lit candles.

## Commemorative plaque

On January 26, 2019, a commemorative plaque with content in three languages was stolen from its stone. On March 22, 2019, a new stone tablet financed from contributions from the community of Kłodzko and former German residents was unveiled.

