Krnov Synagogue
The Krnov Synagogue (Czech: Synagoga v Krnově) is a synagogue in Krnov, Czech Republic. It was built in 1871. It is one of only three surviving synagogues in the Moravian-Silesian Region (the others are at Nový Jičín and Český Těšín).
Description[edit]
The exterior of the building with twin towers and round-arched windows is in an eclectic, round-arched, Rundbogenstil neo-romantic style. The interior is Moorish Revival, especially the wooden carved coffered ceiling (painted in reddish brown) and the arcade of the women's galleries.
History[edit]
1938–1945[edit]
The Krnov Synagogue stopped to be used for religious services in autumn 1938, when the Sudetenland was incorporated into Nazi Germany. Not long afterwards, on 9 November 1938, almost all synagogues in the surrounding towns – as anywhere in Nazi Germany – were destroyed during the Reichskristallnacht prosecution.
However, the synagogue was saved. End of October 1938, the mayor of Krnov, Oskar König, had received a secret order from Berlin to destroy and burn down the synagogue of his town on 9 November. Unwilling to comply, he summoned a meeting of the councillors and informed them about the order he had received. The Sudeten councillors then unanimously accepted the proposal of the builder Franz Irblich to deceive the Nazis: They decided to remove all symbols of the Jewish religion from the building and change it into a town market hall, reporting to Berlin that there was no synagogue in Jägerndorf which could be destroyed.[1] As such the building was used until the end of World War II in 1945.
After 1945[edit]
After World War II the German population of Krnov was expelled and the building of the synagogue was first used as a warehouse, than as a regional archive. It was damaged during the 1997 Central European flood, two years later it was finally returned to the Jewish community in Olomouc with no Jewish community in Krnov existing anymore. Between 2003 and 2014 it was thoroughly renovated. Today, credit is given to Franz Irblich to be the savior of the synagogue also by the now Czech town of Krnov. In 1946, Irblich had received a 10 years sentence by a Czechoslovak extraordinary court after accusations of being a Nazi.[2]
Gallery[edit]
-
The gallery -
Old Copper Dome. The copper domes have been replaced -
View take from scaffolding erected while the synagogue was being restored -
One of the towers -
One of the towers -
Stairs leading to the gallery
Literature[edit]
- Badenheuer, Konrad / Heller, Wilfried: Notiz zur Rettung der Synagoge von Jägerndorf (Krnov). [Notice on how the Jägerndorf (Krnov) Synagogue was Saved] in: Heller, Wilfried (Editor): Jüdische Spuren im ehemaligen Sudetenland. [Jewish Relicts in the former Sudetenland] Verlag Inspiration Un Limited, London/Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-945127-26-1, pp. 157–164 (In German).
References[edit]
- ^ "Synagogue". www.infokrnov.cz. Archived from the original on 2018-12-03.
- ^ Helmut Irblich: Die Synagoge von Jägerndorf [The Krnov Synagogue], Schweinfurt 2001 (2nd edition 2018), pp. 8–13
50°05′23″N 17°42′27″E / 50.08972°N 17.70750°E
External links[edit]
- Article about the restoration of the synagogue Archived 2016-03-13 at the Wayback Machine