Description
In the Weiden displaced persons' camp in Germany, a group of Jewish refugees formed a transitional synagogue. They decorated the synagogue walls and ceilings with paintings as customary in pre-war Eastern Europe. While adopting some symbols from pre-war synagogue decorations, e.g., the Zodiac and tribal signs, they added two new scenes never seen in synagogues. The first one depicts Jerusalem in ruins, under the inscription "Zion for your sake be plowed as a field" (Micha 3:12). In the second one, a young boy is standing near a lion, under the inscription "And it shall come to pass in the end of days" (Isaiah 2:2). This is not the first artistic respond to wars and violence in European synagogues. One prominent example is early modern synagogue paintings made to commemorate those who perished in the Chmielnicki massacres during the 1648 Cossack–Polish War. In response to the slaughter, synagogue painters drew beasts of prey, capturing and devouring domestic animals – geese, goats, and hares. The paper analyses the novelties of the Weiden Synagogue paintings, compared to the previous examples of post-war synagogue paintings, and regarding the specific social, religious, and cultural values in each period, presenting these paintings as proof for the triumph of the human spirit on the destruction machine of World War II.| Period | 19 Oct 2023 |
|---|---|
| Event title | Cultural Contexts of War |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Gniezno, PolandShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |