14
A star in memoriam
Semper‘s synagogue has disappeared without any trace. The building on the Hasenberg, a part of Brühl‘s terrace, was „professionally“ dismantled in the days after 9th November 1938, the „night of broken glass“; its stones were sold and used for road building. This destructive act was the kick-off for the Holocaust that ultimately erased almost the entire community. On 9th November 1998, exactly 60 years later, building work for the new synagogue began. The modern building consists of 35 layers gradually twisting towards the east; inside the building, the wall of the torah ark is thus oriented towards Jerusalem. The location of the demolished building is marked by its groundplan in the courtyard between the new Synagogue and the community centre. Above the portal an original star of David is placed that a Dresden fire fighter, Alfred Neugebauer, recovered from the ruins after the November pogroms in 1938. It had previously been placed on the synagogue street Fiedlerstrasse 3.