
MUNICH, GERMANY—According to a BBC News report, rubble from Munich’s main synagogue, which was destroyed on the orders of Adolf Hitler in June of 1938, has been recovered from the River Isar by construction workers. The remains of the building include pieces of columns and a nearly intact stone tablet engraved with some of the Ten Commandments. This tablet would have been displayed on the eastern wall of the synagogue, above the Ark containing the Torah, said Bernhard Purin of Munich’s Jewish Museum. “We never thought we would find anything from [the synagogue],” he added. It appears that the company that tore down the structure stored the rubble on the west side of the city until 1956, when 150 tons of it was submerged in the river as part of a rebuilding project. A department store now stands on the synagogue site. To read about the archaeological recovery of Jewish sites destroyed during World War II, go to "Honoring the Dead."