Dead Bodies in the Buda Synagogue, 1686

Buda, Hungary
2 September, 1686

The Buda synagogue was constructed in 1461. Buda was a hotspot for the confrontation between Christians and the Ottoman Empire. The city was captured by the Ottomans in 1526 (who banished and then re-welcomed the Jews) and retaken by the Christians in 1686.

When the Christians entered the city in 1686, they began a widespread slaughter of all the residents. The Jews of the town ran into the synagogue for protection, but the Hapsburg troops battered their way in and killed everyone inside. Only Rabbi Isaac Schulhof was released and he eventually wrote a first-hand account of the attack, Megilat Ofen. The building was torched, with the bodies left inside to rot.

Hundred of Jews from the town were captured and held for ransom, including Schulhof. Eventually Samuel Oppenheimer, the Hapsburg Emperor's banker, redeemed them. (The Holocaust and the Book: Destruction and Preservation, 269)

In was three hundred years later, in 1964, when the ruins of the synagogue were uncovered. 72 bodies  lay inside, including one wearing tefillin.

The building has since been restored and today serves as a small museum. (Medieval Hungary and Schulhof Foundation)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mas'uda Shemtov Synagogue, Iraq, 1950

Image
14 January 1951 Baghdad, Iraq After the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Jews living in the Arab world were increasingly persecuted and the overwhelming majority were forced to flee. On January 14, 1951, several hundred Iraqi Jews crowded into the courtyard of the Mas'uda Shemtov synagogue. They had come to make arrangements for a flight to Israel, which was becoming urgent. Suddenly, someone threw a hand grenade toward this crowd. The grenade hit a high-tension wire above and exploded. Five people were killed and twenty were injured. (Moshe Gat, The Jewish Exodus from Iraq, 1948-1951  p.134) In wake of the bombing, the government claimed that Zionist agents had carried out the bombing to encourage emigration to Israel. Two Zionist activists were arrested and executed. However, Israeli papers reported that a Christian Iraqi officer had been arrested on suspicion of carrying out this crime, and similar bombs were uncovered in his house. In 2006, a former Mossad
Read more

Vienna, 1981

Vienna, Austria Aug. 29, 1981 In 1981, the Stadttempel of Vienna was attacked by the Abu Nidal Organization in a terrorist attack.  Many guests had come to the synagogue to celebrate a bar mitzva, something the attackers knew about and chose to exploit. ( Arutz Sheva ) Two Palestinian gunmen tried to break into the synagogue, but the gates to the compound were closed. Instead, they open-fired with machine guns and tossed four grenades into the crowd. Two people were killed: a mother, who had thrown herself on top of a friend's baby to shield him from the grenade blast, and an elderly man. ( JTA ) Another 21 people were injured. ( New York Times )  The windows of the building shattered, and the facade was riddled with bullet holes. A pool of blood formed at the front door.  The same synagogue had been attacked in 1979, but without casualties. Another attack was foiled in 2016. ( The Jewish Press )
Read more

Siedlce, 1939

During Sukkot, 1939, German soldiers forced their way into the synagogue in Siedlce, Poland. They beat the Jews who were praying inside. When people tried to escape, they were shot. Yosef Rubin was killed in this way. ( Association of Siedlcers in Israel ) A few months later, the synagogue was burned to the ground. According to some reports, homeless Jews who had been living in the synagogue died inside. ( Yizkor Book )
Read more