Dresden, Germany

Arson 1938

The Disappointed Tourist: Dresden Synagogue, Ellen Harvey, 2021. Oil and acrylic on Gessoboard, 18 x 24″ (46 x 61 cm). Photograph: Etienne Frossard.

The Dresden Synagogue, also known as the Semper Synagogue, was designed by Gottfried Semper and built from 1838 to 1840. It was one of the first synagogues to be built in the Moorish revival style.  It was burned down as part of the Nazi Kristallnacht attack on Jewish communities throughout Germany in 1938. A Technischen Hilfswerk film documents the subsequent removal of the ruins, for which the bill was given to the Jewish congregation. The only part of the synagogue that survived was the Star of David which fireman Alfred Neugebauer removed from the burning roof and later returned to the congregation in 1949. In 2001, the New Synagogue was opened next to the site of the old synagogue, where a memorial in the shape of a menorah stands. The painting is based on an engraving from about 1860 by Louis Thumling after a painting by Herman Krone.

Everyone remembers what the British did to Dresden, I want this to be remembered also. Anon.