Tag #157184 - Interview #78001 (Salomea Gemrot)

At first we used to go for prayers to a synagogue in Rzeszow. There were two synagogues there. The one we attended was beautiful, very tall and old with these colored windows - it was said that it was some 800 years old then. [The New Town Synagogue, on 1 Maja Street, called the Great Synagogue was built in the late 17th century. During WWII the Germans turned it into a stable and, in 1944, burned it down completely. It was rebuilt in the period 1954-1963. It currently houses the Culture House - Artistic Exhibitions Office.] I remember how they set fire to this beautiful synagogue. Monek had this girlfriend, Giza, who later visited us with her father and he complained that his neighbors, Poles, came to him then and said, 'Look, Jew, they're burning down your temple.' And Giza's father, he was a witty man, told them, 'Why should I bother, it's God's house, so he should care for it, not me.' This was already during the war, those times had begun.