The Synagogue in Wlodawa

Wlodawa on the River Bug in the far East of Poland, was always known as the 'City of Three Cultures' (Jewish, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox). The slender towers of its Baroque RC church stand proud above the river, near the onion domes of the imposing Orthodox temple. The Synagogue, however, no longer has a Kahal (the community that dated back to 1525). In spasmodic bursts, the Germans transported the entire Jewish population of the city, together with its last Rabbi, to the death camps of Sobibor and Belzec, further down the River Bug. Wlodawa was then proudly declared the first city in Poland to be completely Judenrein (cleansed of Jews). The Synagogue buildings (their treasures, furnishings and cemetery destroyed) were then used as German military storehouses. 

Now, refurbished the Synagogue is a museum showing both the splendour of its past and atrocity of its destruction and that of its people.