Synagogues on fire. The end of Polish synagogue architecture in 1939–1941 in the iconography of German soldiers

Abstract

The outbreak of World War II marked the beginning of a tragic period in history that determined the fate of Polish Jews. From its first days, the German terror was not only remembered as a prelude to the Holocaust, but also as the beginning of the end of synagogue architecture in Poland. The iconography presented in the article draws attention to the burning synagogues and, at the same time, the end of a world that was indisputably part of the culture, art and identity of Poland before 1939. In the landscape of Poland it constituted a kind of individuality, which in the vocabulary of the Third Reich was perceived as: „Jewish culture and architecture” (Judische Kultur und Architektur), „Jewish types” (Judische Typen), „subhumans” (Untermenschen). This is the vocabulary of the German soldier who has occupied Poland since September 1939. And although some of them had already become familiar with this world during the First World War, it was mostly the young recruit born between 1920 and 1922 who perceived it in an alien way, unprecedented for him. Convinced of their mission to expand their living space (Lebensraum), and thus their right to rule over Poland and Eastern Europe, the young Germans simultaneously made a visual perception of Polish Jews. The main part the article consists of iconographic documents visualising the silent historical source and studies of the subject created after 1945. They cover the period from 1939 to 1941 and depict the process of destroying Polish synagogue architecture. These are significant years because it was during this period that the largest number of synagogues built in Poland before 1939 were destroyed.