After 1938, the synagogue was a burnt-out ruin with window cavities in the middle of the city. In 1953, the property is transferred to the Jewish Trust Corporation, the legal successor organization for abandoned Jewish community property in the British Zone. Stones fell from the façade. Between 1949 and 1959, the postwar community of roughly eighty war survivors set up a prayer room in the former rabbi’s house located immediately next door. They were not permitted to use the main room of the synagogue with its former 1,400 seats. The property was sold to the City of Essen in 1959, whereupon the city finally installed industrial windows. The Torah roll shrine has been preserved, albeit damaged. The city wanted a modern, timeless exhibition space for industrial design and tore down a large part of the interior.
Timeline Essen
- ↑ The “House of Industrial form” in the former synagogue – 1960
- ↓ Pogrome night in Essen: The synagogue burns – November 9, 1938