brigade and police kept the spread of the flames in check. The synagogue was badly damaged, but not destroyed, however the main prayer hall could no longer be used for services. From December 1938 until October 1942, the congregation therefore met in the youth synagogue in the side wing of the building instead. Since only seven Berlin synagogues were reopened after the November pogroms, other congregations in the neighborhood also held their services in the building. After Rabbi Julius Jakobovits emigrated to Great Britain, where his son Immanuel Jakobovits later became Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Georg Kantorowski, Rabbi Regina Jonas and Rabbi Martin Riesenburger occasionally officiated in the synagogue. At the end of 1941 the building was used to store looted Jewish property from around Berlin. At the beginning of 1942 the Gestapo occupied the entire property and used it to park military vehicles. In a bombing raid on Berlin in 1944 the site suffered further destruction and in 1958/1959 the main building was fully demolished. Reopening in 1945 Immediately after the war, the youth services building was the first synagogue in Berlin to be reopened in time for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year celebrations, in September 1945. This is primarily thanks to the initiative of the Jewish American soldier Harry Nowalsky. The Jewish Hungarian-American war photographer Robert Capa immortalized this special moment in a series of pictures for ’’Life’’ magazine. Some of these images have been displayed in the synagogue since 2016. In the years following its reopening in 1945, weddings, bar mitzvahs and religious instruction took place in the synagogue. In 1985, around 25 Torah curtains from various synagogues were found hidden in the attic and were restored. Some of them can be viewed today in the synagogue on Fraenkelufer. A memorial stone by Cornelia Lengfeld erected on the property boundary in 1989 reminds visitors of the destruction in the past. The building is a historical monument, and a memorial plaque on the embankment shows the earlier construction and tells the story of the site's destruction. The community since its rededication in 1959 On April 22, 1959, the former side wing of the synagogue was consecrated again, after significant reconstruction and has since been used for prayers and community life. There, rabbis of different affiliations take turns, from liberal to orthodox. In the beginning, the community of prayer consisted of survivors and returnees. Many of them lived and