The prayer hall lacked most of its benches and the aron kodesh was screened off by a raw provisional wall built after April 1940 . Sanitary installations had been dismantled and the destroyed windows exposed the interior to the impact of weather . ( 1899 – 1950 , Soviet Gulag ) , who survived the Shoah living underground , the new president of '' Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin '' much promoted the reopening of Rykestraße Synagogue . He informed the city council that on Friday , 13 July 1945 , the first shabbat ceremony was held , also attended by Soviet City Commander Nikolai Berzarin , however using the better preserved and smaller weekday prayer hall . On 29 July 1945 Rabbi could celebrate the first Jewish wedding there since the closure of the synagogue in 1940 . Jewish displaced persons , who survived the Shoa and were stranded in Berlin , used to live in the front building
Shoa
The Holocaust
Rykestrasse Synagogue