(Dis-)appropriation of Synagogue Architecture in East-Central Europe since 1945

Call for Papers (Deadline: 31 January 2023)

The synagogues that remained standing after World War II have faced an uncertain destiny. As abandoned buildings, they were susceptible to decay quickly and, as former buildings of worship, for legal, cultural and architectural reasons, posed a great challenge in terms of their reuse. Consequently, many synagogues simply fell into ruins, some were turned into secular buildings of various purposes, and few could have been used as houses of prayer again.

These processes have already been quite well researched in western other parts of Europe. A desideratum, however, is approach to the Jewish architectural heritage in those East-Central European territories, whose state affiliation changed after 1945 and whose population was exchanged. The aim of the conference is a historicization of the processes of rediscovery in the recent past.

The conference is a cooperation of Bet Tfila – Research Unit for Jewish Architecture in Europe at TU Braunschweig, GHI Warsaw and POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. It takes place within the framework of the ‘DFG Priority Program 2357: Jewish Cultural Heritage’, which is funded by the German Research Foundation.

Fuller information is provided here.