Rosh Hashana in Dynow, 1939

15 September 1939
Dynow, Poland

Like many towns in the region, Dynow was occupied by the German army on 11 September, 1939. On the first day hundreds of Jews were rounded up and killed. That year the prayers on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur were especially harried.

After the first round of killing, the Germans continued to torture and execute local Jews. They decided to burn one of the synagogues as well. "They then took all the holy books from the study center and the other synagogue and spread them out on the floor. They then threw an incendiary bomb and shortly thereafter the entire synagogue was on fire. The flames reached the sky and lit the entire hamlet and the horizon with a red light that terrified everybody." While the synagogue was burning, the Germans threw three or four Jews inside, where they perished. "The screams of the old men were heard along the entire street of the synagogue. (Destruction of Dynow, Sanko, Dubiecko, ed. David Moritz)

According to Virtual Sztetl, a second instance took place on 15 September, 1940: "Nazis douses in petrol approximately 50 Jews, who took refuge in one of the synagogues, and burnt them alive. Two adjacent houses of prayer burnt as a result of this fire."

Four of the victims killed in the synagogue are identified on Yad Vashem witness pages:

  • Alter Ginzberg, son of Yoel
  • Meir Lampel
  • Shlomo Rein
  • Yosel Rogel 

Alter Ginzberg's page relates that he was caught in Dynow while fleeing his town along with several friends and thrown into the burning synagogue, where he perished. Meir Lampel's says that "the Germans burned the Dynow synagogue together with the worshipers inside."






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