Swinoujscie Synagogue / Świnoujście

The construction of a synagogue was prepared in 1821 by the Jewish religious community of Swinoujscie. The merchant Isenthal extended the rear building of his home (Große Kirchenstraße, today Grunwaldzka) and made the new premises available to the Jewish community. This space soon became too small.  An application made by the Jewish community in 1853 to the state for support in the construction of a synagogue was initially rejected due to the insufficient number of members. In 1857, the Jewish community therefore rented part of the military & economic building at Blücherstr. 1 (later Bismarckstr., today Piłsudskiego). Around 1857, the town donated a building plot to the Jewish community in a still undeveloped part of Neue Straße no. 6, today ul. Piastowska. The Jewish members of the community raised 500 thalers, with which the construction of a simple synagogue could be started. The mason Pistorius finally built the new building for 1650 thalers. In just a few years, the entire costs were covered by voluntary donations. On September 20, 1859, a Berlin rabbi inaugurated the building.

In 1938, during the November pogroms, the synagogue was burned down, the New Jewish Cemetery was vandalized and the cemetery chapel was destroyed.The city administration of Swinoujscie later had the synagogue ruins blown up and razed to the ground; to cover the costs, the small remaining property of the synagogue congregation was confiscated. In mid-February 1940, the few remaining Jews in the town - together with around 1,100 Pomeranian Jews (mainly from Szczecin, Stralsund, Anklam, Pasewalk and other places) - were deported from Szczecin to the Lublin district.

Today, there is no trace of either of the Jewish community's sites. No Jewish family in Swinemünde survived the Second World War. J.Pl.

Source https://www.swinemuende.eu/kirchen_in_swinemuende.htm