the smart people lived where the earth shook!
it just adds to the excitement...i mean who wants a boring civilization?
Friday, August 29, 2008
History can be bad but does get better with time...
Underground Jewish History in Vienna
August 27, 2008
Vienna, Austria has a dark history with regard to the Jewish community. The horror of the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 1938 and the successive deportation of Jews from the city by the Nazis are events that are firmly inscribed in the historical annals of the 20th century. Fortunately, the post-war era ushered in a change in the attitude of Vienna towards its Jewish citizens, and in 1995 a design was selected for a memorial monument to the victims of the Holocaust that was to be erected in Judenplatz, the central area of the medieval Jewish quarter of Vienna. Before the memorial was to be erected, however, the city officials of Vienna launched an archaeological investigation of the Judenplatz, bringing to light a remarkable layer of Jewish history.
Eerily reminiscent of the tragic events of the 20th century, these recent excavations have unearthed the remains of a beautiful medieval synagogue that was destroyed in 1421, during another pogrom against the Jews. The 500-year-old predecessor of the Nazi-organized aggression was ordered by Duke Albrecht V at the behest of the Catholic Church. It was determined by archaeologists that the synagogue, which had stood for approximately 20 years before it was destroyed, had undergone three distinct phases of expansion and modification between 1236, when it was first thought to have been constructed, and 1421, when the building was destroyed. Today the remains of this medieval synagogue are on display in an underground museum beneath the Judenplatz.
The Jerusalem Post reports on Vienna’s underground synagogue
August 27, 2008
Vienna, Austria has a dark history with regard to the Jewish community. The horror of the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 1938 and the successive deportation of Jews from the city by the Nazis are events that are firmly inscribed in the historical annals of the 20th century. Fortunately, the post-war era ushered in a change in the attitude of Vienna towards its Jewish citizens, and in 1995 a design was selected for a memorial monument to the victims of the Holocaust that was to be erected in Judenplatz, the central area of the medieval Jewish quarter of Vienna. Before the memorial was to be erected, however, the city officials of Vienna launched an archaeological investigation of the Judenplatz, bringing to light a remarkable layer of Jewish history.
Eerily reminiscent of the tragic events of the 20th century, these recent excavations have unearthed the remains of a beautiful medieval synagogue that was destroyed in 1421, during another pogrom against the Jews. The 500-year-old predecessor of the Nazi-organized aggression was ordered by Duke Albrecht V at the behest of the Catholic Church. It was determined by archaeologists that the synagogue, which had stood for approximately 20 years before it was destroyed, had undergone three distinct phases of expansion and modification between 1236, when it was first thought to have been constructed, and 1421, when the building was destroyed. Today the remains of this medieval synagogue are on display in an underground museum beneath the Judenplatz.
The Jerusalem Post reports on Vienna’s underground synagogue
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