A window into history the synagogue in Martin
Just as Christians built churches, Jews also built their sacred temples in the form of synagogues. One of these was built in 1875 near the Martin city centre, located on Smrtna street that led towards the local cemetery. Then it was located on Smrtna Street that led towards the local cemetery. However, it received its final form after a fire in 1881. Until the outbreak of the Second World War it served its purpose peacefully. It was remarkable that there was also a Jewish cemetery near the synagogue. Jewish cemeteries were usually established outside the village or city, far from synagogues. In 1942, the regime of the wartime Slovak state deported the majority of Jews to Nazi extermination camps, mainly in the territory of the General Governorate (part of the former Poland). Nevertheless, out of more than 400 Jews in Martin at the beginning of the war, a few Jewish families remained to live in the city, which survived until the outbreak of the SNP (Slovak National Uprising). Subsequently, those who did not have time to hide were captured by the Nazis, deported to death camps or ruthlessly eliminated in Slovakia. Like most synagogues in Slovakia, Martin´s synagogue survived the war, but after 1945 it no longer had anyone to serve. The space intended for prayers was replaced by a drying chamber and the grain storage. The building was used for a new undignified purpose, but no one maintained it, so it languished. In the end, the faded and ruined building was demolished in the mid-seventies, although there were organizations and individuals who tried to save it. Today there is not even a commemorative plaque here, just a bus stop. The people of Martin remember it as something mysterious but wonderful, with beautiful cast-iron columns in the interior or coloured glass on the windows.