Posted By  richards on September 16, 2014    
				
				Artists  Exhibitions News    Poland        Artists rebuild fragments of a former synagogue in Polish    castle    
    By Julia Michalska. News, Issue 260,    September 2014    Published online: 16 September 2014  
      Two German artists, Horst Hoheisel and Andreas Knitz, have      dismantled fragments of a Jewish synagogue in Poznan and      installed them in Adolf Hitlers former office in the Polish      citys castle. The work will form part of The Eye of Memory      (13 September-12 October) at Poznans Castle Culture Centre.    
    After the outbreak of the Second World War, the invading Nazi    forces in Poznan turned the citys Great Synagogue, built in    1907, into a public swimming pool and spa. Extraordinarily, the    former synagogue continued to function as a municipal pool    until 2011, and was only closed due to the poor condition of    the building.  
    In 1939, the Nazis also transformed the Imperial Castle in    Poznan into Hitlers official residence. The castles chapel    housed Hitlers office, which was rebuilt to resemble his room    in the Reichs chancellery. The building was severely damaged    in 1945. It was refurbished and now serves as the Castle    Culture Centre.  
    It was no coincidence that the Nazis built Hitlers office in    a former chapel. It was about the consecration of their    government and its empowerment. At the same time, they    deconsecrated a place that was holy to Jewish people. Now,    through the fragments of the synagogue, the artists will    deconsecrate Hitlers former office. Its a very symbolic    gesture, says Anna Hryniewiecka, the director of the culture    centre.  
    Hoheisel and Knitz are best known for their    counter-monuments, which subvert the traditional    understanding of the iconography of monuments. In addition to    the installation inside Poznans castle, the artists Monument    of Grey Buses, first shown in 2006, will be placed outside. The    work, which has previously been installed in cities including    Ravensburg and Berlin, is a memorial to the many disabled    adults and children who were transported in buses to    concentration camps, where they were murdered.  
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Star of David rises over Hitlers former HQ
				
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