SYNAGOGENDENKMAL - MEMORIAL OF THE GREAT SYNAGOGUE

This is one of the most poignant places in the city: 140 empty chairs, all covered in bronze, positioned in the shape of a trapeze, in the open air, to symbolize the memory of Jewish victims and that of a synagogue that is no longer.... The large synagogue in Leipzig, which had been built in 1855 in a neo-Moorish style on the corner of Gottschedstrasse and Zentralstrasse, was burned down by the Nazis in 1938 during the infamous Kristallnacht. In memory of the Leipzig Jews murdered by the Nazis, the communist authorities had insisted on having a memorial stele erected in its original location in 1966 with the following epitaph: "Here, on 9 November 1938, the great synagogue of the Leipzig Jewish community was destroyed by arson by the fascist hordes. Don't forget". Thirty years later, at the dawn of the 2000s, the city of Leipzig decided to acquire the land where the synagogue once stood in order to build, in collaboration with the local Jewish community, this powerful memorial, where the metaphor of empty chairs is instantly obvious to the eye. The Synagogendenkmal was inaugurated in 2001. Every November 9th has since given rise to a special celebration at the foot of this installation. It should be remembered that at the beginning of the last century, Leipzig had about 13,000 Jewish citizens and about ten synagogues. Only a few hundred of them survived the Holocaust.... Until 1933, the neighbourhoods that housed the largest Jewish community were Gottschedstrasse and Waldstrassenviertel, located slightly further north.