Dresden II; Lithograph over Monoprint, 70 x 100 cms, Unique, 2013.

Established since medieval times, Dresden known as the ‘The Florence of the Elbe’ was one of the great European cities at the time of the Isakowitz family’s arrival in 1924. A major economic centre and transport hub, it was world renowned for its architecture and the arts.

Dresden had developed dramatically under Elector Friedrich August I (Augustus the Strong) to become the City of the Baroque, instantly recognisable by its iconic skyline. It continued to grow rapidly in the mid-19th Century with additional bridges over the Elbe, new railway lines, stations and a port, along with a new city hall and numerous other public buildings. In the 1840’s the celebrated architect Gottfried Semper designed the Opera House, which was to feature premieres by Wagner and Richard Strauss, and the Semper Synagogue. At the turn of the century Dresden was the fourth largest city of the German Empire, with more than half a million inhabitants.

By 1924 Dresden was a vibrant and sophisticated city enjoying a brief period of calm after the turmoil caused by the privations enforced by the Treaty of Versailles, and the hyperinflation of the Deutschmark.

The Jewish community of about 5000 was small for a city of Dresden’s size. Many members came from Eastern Europe. The community focussed on the Semper Synagogue, and the next-door communally owned houses at 1 and 3 Zeughausstrasse. Prosperous and well endowed, it had a valuable library, ran a community newspaper, and maintained numerous social, educational, and charitable organizations employing between twenty and thirty people. My grandmother Sofie volunteered for some of these charities, and Erich was associated with a Jewish Freemasons Lodge. It was a complex and heterogeneous community, with various, often-conflicting, factions and diverse approaches to Judaism, ranging from the Orthodox to the Reform, Liberal, and Zionist. The synagogue had been built in 1840, designed by Semper, a non-Jew. It reflected the aspirations of German Reform Judaism, which emphasised assimilation, the need to modernise rituals and the introduction of music, the organ, and a choir. Reform Jews stressed that Jews were not in a state of continual exile, but were vital contributory members of their community and nation. My grandparents and their daughter attended synagogue particularly on the High Holy Days, which were as much a social as a religious community ‘coming together’.

The Semper synagogue was burnt down on the night known as Kristallnacht, the 9th and 10th November 1938, similar to over a thousand others in Germany and Austria. Some days later, the ruins were "professionally" removed and the bill for the costs sent to the Jewish congregation. A remaining fragment of the wall, and the Star of David from the roof, are now incorporated into the new synagogue, which is on the same site.