Every year more than 500,000 people visit Auschwitz-Birkenau, where more than 1 million Jews died between 1940 and 1945. Few, however, cross the Sola River to the nearby town of Oswiecim, which in 1939 was a bustling Polish community of roughly 12,000 people, most of them Jewish. Only one Oswiecim synagogue, the Chevra Lomdei Mishnayot, survived the war, having first been used as a Nazi munitions depot and then as a carpet warehouse under the communist regime.
Last month this turn-of-the-century synagogue, along with the adjoining residence, reopened as the Auschwitz Jewish Center (Zydowskie Centrum Edukacyjne), the culmination of a $1 million reconstruction effort led by the New York-based Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation.
The center features a permanent exhibit about the prewar Jewish population of Oswiecim, as well as a 15-minute video of testimony from survivors and former residents.
A genealogy resource office is also available. Prayer meetings may be organized in the synagogue.
The Auschwitz Jewish Center, Plac Ks Jana Skarbka 5, is about two miles from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum. Closed Saturday and after 2 on Friday afternoons between Nov. 1 and Feb. 28, unless arrangements have been made in advance. No admission charge. When dialing from the U.S., the number is 011-48-33-844-7002.
For information about group visits, call 212-575-1050; www.ajcf.org; e-mail info@ajcf.org.
