reichspogromnacht

I had not seen the photos of Kristallnacht before; this is terribly compelling. Thanks for sharing this history with us on Flickr.

Somehow, from the documentaries I watched as a child in Hebrew school, and other sources like that, I always associated Kristallnacht with smashed windows in storefronts, sort of small stuff like that, though happening on a widespread scale of course. Somehow I never thought of massive, impressive buildings such as this one being set aflame. This is probably the largest and most impressive shul I've seen in photos... far more architecturally attractive than, for example, my own home shul out on Long Island. ... It's shots like these these that really make you think, what if it were your shul? what if it happened to you? And brings the whole thing home so much more strongly, more powerfully.

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Flickr Commons, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

Wow... really poignant for me as I just moved to this city. Thank you for sharing.

wow! -- Seen in Rimel Neffati's favorites. (?)

Was the synagogue destroyed in 1938 but the photo taken at a later date? The Frauenkirche in the background appears also to be damaged.

The synagogue was destroyed in June 1938, but you are correct....I think the Frauenkirche looks damaged. I will look at the original picture and get back to you, I think maybe the catalogue record is incorrect, and the individual doing the cataloging put June 1938 assuming it was taken shortly after the synagogue was destroyed. Incidentally, the synagogue in Munich was destroyed in June 1938, many months before the Kristallnacht. It was the first synagogue to be destroyed in Germany in the Nazi period.

After doing some research, you are correct that this photograph was taken after the war. Leo Baerwald, whose image this was, fled the Nazis, immigrating to the United States in the early Nazi period. He had been an active member of this synagogue in Munich. After the war, he went back to Munich and took photographs of the devestated site, in the now-destroyed Munich. I am going to mention the mistake in the dating of these photographs to the administration here, and we will update these records in our catalog. Michael Simonson Leo Baeck Institute

It had beautiful architechural lines that can be seen & appreciated even in this sad moment. What a terrible loss.