“And you will hear in the heavens…” , Augsburg, Germany

In 1991, I happened to have a conversation with photographer Nahum Tim Gidal in which he suggested that I contact Senator Julius Spokojny in Augsburg, Germany who was looking for someone to make a series of photographs of the recently restored synagogue of Augsburg.

For a little background, Tim Gidal was born in Munich in 1909 and became one of Germany’s first photojournalists. His images were featured in popular illustrated German magazines. Gidal watched and photographed in Germany as Hitler rose to power. Gidal photographed Hitler sitting in a sidewalk cafe before he was elected. He managed to run away before the Nazi thugs surrounding their leader could notice and pursue him. In the same year that Hitler became Chancellor, Tim left Germany to pursue a new life, first in Britain and then in British Mandate Palestine. When I first met Tim Gidal, he was living in Jerusalem but still maintained extensive contacts in Germany. (You can view some of Tim Gidal’s works on our gallery website).

I was looking for something to do, so I flew to Germany to develop some contacts that I had there and I also went to visit Senator Spokojny in Augsburg. Julius Spokojny, originally from Poland, was a Holocaust survivor who at the end of the war had found himself together with many other Jews gravitating towards Munich. The Allied headquarters were located in this area and so to many it seemed a safer place to be. Spokojny described to me his existence after the death camps: he helped the Jewish Agency locate Jewish survivors to assist them in reaching Mandatory Palestine. He slept on benches in the Augsburg synagogue, which had been partially destroyed on Kristallnacht. It hadn’t been totally burned because it was too close to a petrol station so the authorities came and put out the fire. The Nazis, Spokojny told me, had used the building remains as a stable. This synagogue was his home for a while and as he laid there one night, he vowed that he would see it restored to its former glory. He remained in Germany helping other Jews reach Palestine, eventually becoming involved in Bavarian politics and was later elected as a senator to the Bavarian parliament. In this capacity, he fulfilled his earlier vow.

The synagogue was the winning design of architect Fritz Landauer, begun in 1913 and finished in 1917. It is a rather strange combination of art nouveau with Orientalist and Byzantine details. As you can see from the photographs, if you look closely, the decorative elements are composed of very fine and elaborate mosaics. The building is massive: more than sufficient to enclose all the 1000 Jews of the community that built it. The most impressive element is the dome, which rises to a height of 29 meters. Everything in this building’s design speaks of the feeling of connection with the local German culture. A griffin like sculpture combines the Jewish symbol of a menorah and the Lion of Judah with the German eagle. The size, elegance and central location of this structure all say “We belong here! We are German Jews.” How mistaken they were. The restoration was completed in 1985.

I asked Senator Spokojny why he wanted me to make these photographs. He replied simply, “Nothing has changed here. They would do it again, they will do it again. Someday someone will burn or blow-up this building. I want the photographs to show what was here.”