Objects

Untitled (Bankowy Square 1)

Żmijewski, Artur (1966 - )

One of two shots showing the current view of the Bankowy Square (plac Bankowy) with the dominating structure of the Blue Skyscraper, a building standing on the site of the destroyed Great Synagogue at the former 7 Tłomackie Square (plac Tłomackie 7) in Warsaw. The synagogue, designed by Leandro Marconi and formally inaugurated in 1878, was one of the most representative buildings erected in Warsaw in the 19th century, a symbol of Reform Judaism and the largest Jewish temple in Warsaw. The building found itself within the Warsaw Ghetto. The synagogue resumed its religious function for less than a year, between 1941 and 1942, with the permission of the Germans, but after that it was definitively closed down in March 1942. For a time, it served as a warehouse for goods looted from Jews, and finally ceased to exist on 16 May 1943, when Jurgen Stroop, having bloodily put down the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, personally blew it up. It was a carefully prepared event, planned by Stropp as ‘an unforgettable allegory of the triumph over Jewry’.

After the end of the Second World War, it was initially planned to rebuild the synagogue, but in the 1950s the authorities decided to build on that site a skyscraper. Eventually, after many changes, work began in 1976 and was interrupted in the late 1970s and early 1980s, to be resumed in the late 1980s. and finally were completed in 1991.

MBK

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Information about the object
Author / creator
Żmijewski, Artur (1966 - )
Object type
photography
Time of creation / dating
21st century
Place of creation
Warszawa (mazovian province)
Technique
digital photograph
Material
unknown
Keywords
Copyright status
contact the Museum
Owner
POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Identification number
MPOLIN-M1058
Localization
The object is not currently on display