Following the Holocaust, the few Jews who returned to Nikolsburg did not stay and many of the people living in the town were newcomers with little knowledge of its past. The old buildings of the Jewish town became derelict and were cleared away without a thought for their history.
The picture on the left is a famous one of old Nikolsburg, with a view up the Tempelgasse to the Altschul Synagoge (just visible at the end of the lane) and with the Neuschul on the corner on the left. The picture on the right shows the same view after demolition of the area on the right between Tempelgasse and Oppenheimerplatz to make way for a housing project (visible at the top of the hill) during the communist era. The Altschul synagogue is now exposed to full view at the top of the lane. The Neuschul and other buildings on the left hand were later also demolished. By the late 1970s little was left of this part of the old Jewish town.
Copyright © 2009 Bob Lenk, used by permission