Synagogue, Munich

You cannot visit without a prior arrangement with the community of Jewish people who have established their centre in this Old Town square. We were told that ten days notice is required and access is via an underground tunnel from their nearby centre. It's lined with panels bearing the names of the 4,600 Munich Jews who were murdered by the Nazis during the last war. The Munich mayor was Nazi Party member number 37, so was very close to Hitler and zealously enforced-role modelled all the anti-Jewish legislation during the 1930s. After the war, there were only seven Jews left in Munich. Yes, seven. The community stands at about nine thousand today.

An interesting project was launched a few years ago. A young Jewish woman, newly moved to Munich, put an advert in the local papers to see if people would take up her request to have a 'chat', especially as she included the word 'Jewish' in her self-description. Many people responded. The conversations were often a chance for people of the 'third generation' to talk about what it had been/is like to grow up with the Nazi heritage with often-unanswered questions about what grandparents did, or thought, during the war.

She recorded the chats and many anonymous exerts from them now adorn the large glass exterior windows of the Jewish Museum, just out of shot to the right - see extra.

They make fascinating reading. This was the second time I have been here and read them and they disclose horror, shame and indignity in equal measure.

In other news, it has been mainly cold and rainy but it has not prevented us from enjoying walking about, including around Gartner Platz which is very continental-cosmopolitan. Dinner booked in Juleps, Buttermelcherstrasse, 17 at 7.30 pm.

Photographic note: My photographic mentor here, q8rdave, I hope would have enjoyed/will enjoy the role of triangulation in this composition. There are several and I worked hard to get them in play!