WARSAW — The Great Synagogue of Warsaw, which was destroyed by German forces during World War II, made a brief reappearance as an apparition of light during commemorations for the Ghetto Uprising of 1943. Light was projected Thursday night onto the modern glass building in the place where the synagogue used to stand. For two hours, a grand building fronted by classical Greek-style columns was returned virtually to a city where most traces of a large prewar Jewish community have vanished. Archival recordings of the synagogue’s cantor, Gerszon Sirota, revived the sounds of Jewish Warsaw. Sirota died in the ghetto. The light-and-sound show was the work of Polish multimedia artist Gabi von Seltmann, who wants Polish society to remember the large Jewish community that was once an integral part of a multicultural country. It was organized by Open Republic, a group that fights anti-Semitism. “Awaking memory in Poland to me also means to teach empathy, because when there is empathy there is no fear anymore,” von Seltmann said. The synagogue “re-creation” happened for the second year as part of commemorations for the anniversary of the uprising Friday. This year it took place the night before so as not to interfere with the Jewish Sabbath and the holiday of Passover beginning Friday evening. Von Seltmann’s grandfather was a Polish school director killed at Auschwitz along with many other members of the Polish intelligentsia. Her husband, whose last name she has taken, is the grandson of one of the SS officers who inflicted atrocities on occupied Poland. The couple have written and spoken publicly about their own love story, framing it as a story of generational reconciliation. The Great Synagogue was the largest synagogue in a city where a third of the...
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