Bytom Synagogue or Beuthen Synagogue was a synagogue in Beuthen, in the Prussian

Province of Silesia The Province of Silesia (german: Provinz Schlesien; pl, Prowincja Śląska; szl, Prowincyjŏ Ślōnskŏ) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1919. The Silesia region was part of the Prussian realm since 1740 and established as an official p ...

(present-day

Bytom Bytom (Polish pronunciation: ; Silesian: ''Bytōm, Bytōń'', german: Beuthen O.S.) is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. Located in the Silesian Voivodeship of Poland, the city is 7 km northwest of Katowice, the regional capital ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

), a border–town between

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...

prior to German invasion of Poland in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. After the plebiscite of 1922, the border passed just east of Beuthen, so that neighboring

Katowice Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popul ...

was in Poland.

History

Beuthen Synagogue was built in 1869 on ''Friedrich-Wilhelm-Ring'' (now Plac Grunwaldzki), in place of an older one. The cornerstone was set on May 25, 1868, construction finished on July 2, 1869. Max Kopfstein (1856–1924) from

Bad Ems Bad Ems () is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Rhein-Lahn rural district and is well known as a spa on the river Lahn. Bad Ems is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' (administrative community) Bad E ...

became

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

and religion teacher there in 1889.

Chief Rabbi Chief Rabbi ( he, רב ראשי ''Rav Rashi'') is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities. Since 1911, through a ...

from 1919, he participated in the negotiations of the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

as an expert in matters concerning the Jewish population in Upper Silesia. The synagogue was burned down by Nazi German SS and SA troopers during the Kristallnacht on 9–10 November 1938. On November 7, 1938

Joseph Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 19 ...

had delivered a fiery

antisemitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

tirade in Beuthen with a call for vengeance against Jews. They were made to stand for hours in front of their burning

Moorish The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or se ...

synagogue. Beuthen Jewish Community became the first ever Holocaust transport to be gassed inside "Bunker I" at

Auschwitz-Birkenau Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

death camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...

, all murdered on February 15, 1942, at the onset of the Nazi German Holocaust in Poland. Translations: deportation
A memorial plaque at the site was erected on November 9, 2007.

References

Sources

* Dan Wyman
Judaica of the 19th & early 20th centuries

External links

Bytom Synagogue
at Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Virtual Shtetl {{Authority control Buildings and structures in Bytom Synagogues destroyed during Kristallnacht (Germany) Former Reform synagogues in Poland Moorish Revival synagogues Synagogue buildings with domes Synagogues completed in 1869 19th-century religious buildings and structures in Poland Demolished buildings and structures in Poland

History

See also

References

Sources

External links