The history of the Münzenberg synagogue, the site of Sunday's Kristallnacht ceremony

The Kristallnacht Commemoration in Münzenberg was held in the old synagogue yesterday. Its history reflects shifting attitudes towards Jews in Germany. 

For ninety years — 1848 to 1938 — six Jewish families who lived in Münzenberg, including Gerda Katz, worshipped in the small, two-story synagogue in the center of the city, near the Lutheran church.  

But on Kristallnacht, Nazis smashed the synagogue’s door and threw benches and Jewish artifacts out the building’s windows. Nazis burned the treasured Torah scrolls. However, Nazis didn’t burn down the building, fearing that neighboring houses could catch fire.  

After Kristallnacht, two Jewish families were able to flee the country, but the others didn’t have a place to go or they couldn’t get the necessary papers to leave. Eventually, they were sent to concentration camps where Nazis murdered members of those Münzenberg families.  

In 1952, the city of Münzenberg bought the old synagogue and converted it into a fire station. Workers removed the round arched windows that identified the building as a synagogue and installed a garage door and a false concrete ceiling. The building served the fire brigade until 2005, when the station moved to a new location. Then, the community debated what to do with the old building.  

Before World War II, 2,800 synagogues dotted Germany; now, only 130 remain. In the last few decades, Germans have restored many of the synagogues that survived Kristallnacht.  

After much debate, the city council decided to spend 475,000 euros of public and private money to restore the exterior of the old synagogue to its original state. In 2009, the building was reopened as a living monument to the Jews who once lived in the city and as a cultural center for the current residents of Münzenberg.  

Excerpted from Three Stars in the Night Sky.