Ireneusz Socha

The New Town synagogue in Dębica is – alongside the Jewish orphanage and cemetery – one of the few remaining Jewish cultural heritage buildings and one of the oldest buildings in the town. Built in the 18th century, it had served the local Jewish community up until the outbreak of World War II. Germans set fire to the interior and devastated it completely, using the building as a warehouse. After the war, the building was still standing and continued to be used as a warehouse – this time by communist authorities. Holocaust survivors did not possess the necessary means to renovate the building and maintain it as a synagogue; there were too few of them there to form a separate religious community. In 1954, authorities decided to renovate the building with intent of commercial use. This is how a shopping center was created in the synagogue, which continues to operate to this day. In accordance to Bill of February 20, 1997, defining relations of the Polish State with Jewish Religious Communities in the Republic of Poland, the municipality passed ownership rights to the building to the Jewish Community in Kraków, renovating the roof and exterior walls beforehand. Local authorities suggested that a new owner could use the building for the purposes of a museum, concert hall or cultural center, yet the Kraków Kehilla decided that a shopping center in a former synagogue was a great idea. The synagogue is not registered as a legally protected heritage building. Years passed and the building’s condition continued to deteriorate.

I was not just observing this process passively, but alerted the authorities as well as local and nationwide media about it. Local newspapers wrote about this issue a number of times. In 2006, upon request of Dębica Area Appreciation Society I prepared the English and Polish texts for a plaque that would inform about the building’s history and legal status.

The plaque is now on display on the side of the building from Krakowska street. As I did not get any reaction from the local authorities, in 2007 I notified the Voivodship Office of Monument Preservation in Przemyśl about the need to rescue the building. I also asked why it had not been registered as a voivodship heritage and protected site by default. Due to lack of response, I wrote directly to the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in Warsaw. After an almost year-long delay, the minister answered my intervention letter, obliging the Monument Preservation Office to urgently deal with the case. In 2008, I presented the current shape of and the proposed revitalization plan for the synagogue to members of Irgun Yotzei Debica in Israel. In 2010, upon my request, the Rzeszów chapter of Monument Preservation Office conducted an inspection of the building, prepared a report on its technical condition and recommended its owner to renovate the building.

The owner was also notified that the building will be registered as a historic landmark, yet ultimately this never happened. Over the course of the next few years I exchanged letters with the Office for Protection of Historic Buildings; even though the minister and inspector had changed, the building is still not protected by law, has not been renovated and the owner still uses it for commercial purposes. It was only in 2016 that a chance for the fate of Dębica synagogue to improve appeared. Through my efforts, the Debica Irgun reached an agreement with Krakow’s Jewish Religious Community and Dębica mayor to jointly work on revitalization program of the synagogue. Plans look promising. I will be involved as a member of the project work group.