To commemorate the ,Reichspogromnacht‘ (the Night of Broken Glass), multimedia artist Gabriela von Seltmann and her international team virtually resurrect the Siegen synagogue. In an animated video and sound installation, the synagogue, which burned down on November 10, 1938, rises from the rubble and appears on the outer wall of the Hochbunker (Aktives Museum Südwestfalen) in its previous form. Thus, the center of the Siegerland Jewish community, inaugurated in 1904, returns to the collective memory of the city. Historical and contemporary recordings of synagogal chants accompany the two- and three-dimensional animation.

The premiere of the first virtual reconstruction of a synagogue in Germany is intended to recall, on a representative basis, the more than 1400 synagogues and prayer houses that were destroyed during the so-called Reichskristallnacht in November 1938. This unique event intends to evoke a variety of emotions and possibly memories in viewers, both those on-site and those worldwide watching via live broadcast on the Internet. For some viewers, the event will be their first-ever encounter with Jewish culture and Judaism.

This open-air program will also include the showing of the virtual reconstruction of the Great Synagogue of Warsaw, which premiered in Warsaw in 2018. This Great Synagogue reconstructions serves as a cross-border symbol of how death and destruction can be overcome through memory, reconciliation, and love.

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