Great Synagogue (Białystok)

Coordinates: 53 ° 7 ′ 50 ″  N , 23 ° 9 ′ 26 ″  E

Great Synagogue (Białystok)​

Poland

The Great Synagogue of Białystok ( Polish Wielka Synagoga w Białymstoku ) was located on Suraska Street , was built between 1909 and 1913 and replaced the Old Synagogue, which was built in 1764; it was designed by Samuel (also Szlojme ) Rabinowicz . The synagogue was burned down by the National Socialists on June 27, 1941 , while more than 800 Jews were held in it.

The Great Synagogue, pictured left the orthodox aligned Nomer-Tamid Synagogue

history

The synagogue had a ten meter high dome and two decorative smaller domes on the sides and above the side halls. The large dome was supported by several columns made of steel and concrete. It combined different architectural styles, but mainly a neo-Gothic and Byzantine style was used.

In the synagogue the women attended the service together with the men, albeit in separate halls that enclosed the main prayer hall on three sides. The church had a choir and an organ , and national holidays were celebrated there in the interwar period , when the synagogue was visited by city authorities such as the mayor or the governor of the region. The last official rabbi of Białystok , Dr. Gedali Rozenman, after praying and playing the Jewish hymn Hatikvah, started the Polish national anthem Mazurek Dąbrowskiego .

The size of the synagogue and its prestige attracted Khazanim from all over Poland as well as from neighboring countries. During the Passover festival in 1934, 14 Khazanim offered their services to the synagogue administration.

Memorial at the site of the synagogue

destruction

On the morning of June 27, 1941, soldiers from Police Battalion 309 surrounded the town square by the synagogue and forced residents out of their homes and onto the street. 300 men were placed against the walls of houses and shot. About 800 men and some women and children were locked in the synagogue, which was set on fire shortly afterwards; they died in the flames. The soldiers then threw grenades at houses and shot other people. About 2,000 to 2,200 Jews lost their lives that day.

According to statements from the Białystok Memorial Book, many people opened the wrists of their friends and neighbors to save them the ordeal. A young man, not overwhelmed by the smoke, climbed to a window within the chancel, where he broke panes and cursed the soldiers who were watching the scene. He was shot and fell from the window, but survived. The synagogue's Polish caretaker was finally able to get into the building and open a side door, which allowed some Jews, including the young man, to escape.

Inscription in three languages ​​(Polish, English, Hebrew)

Memorial plaque

The Synagogue Memorial, which was erected in August 1995 and is intended to imitate the shape of the destroyed dome, is now part of the “Path of the Jewish Heritage in Białystok” ( Szlak Dziedzictwa Żydowskiego w Białymstoku ).

Literature and sources

• CF Rüter and DW de Mildt: Justice and Nazi crimes. Collection of German criminal judgments for Nazi homicidal crimes since 1945 , Amsterdam 1968ff, Volume XXXVIII, Case No. 792
• Document VEJ 7/13: Report of the Poizeibataillon 309 In: Bert Hoppe, Hiltrud Glass (edit.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933–1945 (collection of sources), Volume 7: Soviet Union with annexed areas I - occupied Soviet areas under German military administration, the Baltic States and Transnistria. Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-486-58911-5

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Białystok - Wielka Synagoga (ul. Suraska) wirtualny sztetl
2. ↑ Białystok - Pomnik Wielkiej Synagogi, ul. Suraska - Bialystok - Monument of the Great Synagogue  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. polin.org  
3. ↑ (The number 2000 is on the plaque of today's memorial, among other things; information about 800: The Holocaust; The Truth of the Terrors WebCite or 1500: THE GREAT SYNAGOGUE OF BIALYSTOK '“My Life” by Rose Markus Schachner can be found on the Internet , on The Museum of Family History / 500 after the reasons for judgments in justice and Nazi crimes, Volume XXXVIII No. 792.
4. ↑ ^{a b c} The Bialystok Great Synagogue ( Memento of the original from May 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ Bert Hoppe, Hiltrud Glass (edit.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933-1945 , Volume 7: Soviet Union with annexed areas I ... , Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-486-58911- 5 , p. 142 with note 10.

Web links

Commons : Great Synagogue (Białystok)  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Excerpt from a city map (1927) with the location of the synagogue and the Jewish cemetery
• The Great Synagogue in Bialystok - the Place of Faith, Memory and Hope.