7 64 Friday, November 11, 1918 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS DeBreffny's 'The Synagogue:' Architectural History of World Sanctuaries Affected by Custom Economics , NEW YORK — For more than 2,500 years the synagogue has been the center of Jewish spiritual and social life and synagogue architecture has been directly affected by liturgical requirements as well as diverse cultural conditions in the world's Jewish settlements. In a handsome and lavishly illustrated book, "The Synagogue" (Macmillan), historian Brian deBreffny offers a comprehensive his- tory of the - world's synagogues — from Por- tugal to Baghdad, from Sweden to Morocco — that details the relationships be- tween local customs, eco- nomics and architecture. Beginning in the First Century with the earliest archeological evidences found in Egypt, Jerusalem, Sardis Ostia and Masada, deBreffny traces the change from Eastern Oriental mosaics and classical col- umns to the severe twin- nave masonry scheme of the Middle Ages. He discusses why the persecution of the bloody Crusades forced Jews to erect structures dis- tinctly different from that of the churches and why often by force of local bans, they resorted to using private homes to comply with re- strictions on height and dis- tance from the local church. More than . 100 photo- graphs in the volume were taken by George Mott. Renaissance Italy in- spired a spectacular surge in elegance and opulence despite re- straints imposed by the Pope and Doge of Venice. Italian synagogues dis- played lavish gilt trim- mings, damask, and, in Venice, rich gondola trappings, all of which re- flected the refined taste and wealth of Italian Jewry. In Rome, the multi- linguistic and ethnic heri- tage of the Jewish commu- nity was served by housing five different congregations ("Cinque Scuole") within one building, a ploy which circumvented the one- synagogue Papal rule. In the northern region of Ven- ice, prayer halls were lo- cated on second stories above the ground level office and study, thereby avoiding the damage of floods and fulfilling tal- mudic law which specified an elevated site for worship. DeBreffny traces the fol- lowing architectural trends from 17th Century Amster- dam Jewry which was heav- ily influenced by Spanish and Portuguese Jews to the neo-classical revivals - of 10th Century Europe. It was at the turn of the century, deBreffny notes, that the beginnings of mod- ern architecture and "free traditionalism" surfaced in America and a short while later in Israel. He gives particular at- tention to the eclectic in- novative works of such prominent architects as Eisenshtat, Mendelsohn, Percival Goodman and Frank Lloyd Wright. A separate chapter explores the exotic Oriental influence developed during the Diaspora which scat- tered Jews to Asia and North Africa. Geograph- ically severed from the tra- ditions of Western Jewry, the white and black Jews of Tunisia, Morocco, and India worshipped sitting on the floor amidst the splendor of Chinese tiles, Bokhara rugs and ornate Oriental wood- work. "The Synagogue" devotes itself equally to the charm of Bavarian folk art in the village synagogue, the modern silhouettes of Texas and Michigan, and the grandness of Europe's landmarks. "It is my hope that this book will stimu- late pride in, and care for, synagogues past as well as present, and thereby con- tribute to the preservation of those in danger of decay," wrote deBreffny. One of the more than 100 George Mott photographs in Brian deBreffny's "The Synagogue" shows the Moorish style of a synagogue in Florence, Italy. Herbert Malloy Mason's To Kill the Devil' Documents Numerous Plots Against Hitler's Life By ALAN HITSKY Adolf Hitler was the sup- reme ruler of Nazi Germany for 12 years, snuffing out laws and lives as he pleased. Although much is made of the Germany and the Ger- mans who were swept up or swept along with the lead- ers of the 'Master Race," Herbert Malloy Mason Jr. tells a story of those Ger- mans who dared to resist. Mason's new book is "To Kill the Devil — The At- tempts on the Life of Adolf Hitler" (Norton). He documents assassina- tion plans initiated and scrapped on numerous occa- sions between 1938 and 1944 by high-ranking Ger- man army officers who de- tested Hitler and his SS troops, as well as attempts on Hitler's life by individu- als. Many of the plans within the Wehrmacht originated with general staff. Leading field generals, including Erwin Rommel, were ap- proached over the years by a core group of plotters who were in the leadership of the Abwehr, Germany's mili- tary intelligence service. The Abwehr plotters, who originally wanted to kill Hitler in 1938 in order to prevent a war they knew Germany could not win, ul- timately met their • own deaths after an elaborate bombing and putsch at- tempt in 1944 injured but did not kill Germany's Fuhrer. - Intelligence chief Hans Oster even went to the ex- treme in 1939 of committing treason. After failing to convince , ranking German officers of the need to kill Hitler to prevent war, Osthr informed Danish and Norwegian contacts of the upcoming German inva- sion. Oster's Norwegian contact admired Hitler and deliberately withheld the information, while Danish intelligence failed to believe the information, or pass it on to the British. Through the years the Abwehr plotters were con- tinually thwarted by cir- cumstances: lack of nerve, command decisions that prevented action, with- drawal of support by senior Wehrmacht officers at criti- cal times and Hitler's sud- den changes in plans which either removed him or the assassin at the key moment. Mason intersperses the Abwehr plots with tales of individual heroes, includ- ing the deranged, who made attempts on Hitler's life. He also describes a revolt by German college students. GEORG ELSER The most ingenious plot was constructed by a 36- year-old workman, Georg Elser, who spent a year gaining access to explo- sives, working painstak- ingly at night to carve out a niche in a column in the Munich Burgerbraukeller to hide a bomb. Hitler's annual speech commemorating the beer hall putsch of 1923 started 20 minutes earlier and was much briefer on Nov. 8, 1939, than in previous years and this saved Hitler's life. The explosion from Elser's bomb, eight minutes after Hitler left the hall, would have buried Hitler and many of the Nazi hierarchy under tons of rubble. Elser was arrested while trying to cross the Swiss border. German authorities could not believe that Elser could have done the work alone, 'but he reconstructed the entire affair and his apparatus for them. He spent five years in Dachau and was executed before the Allied invasion. Another key personality, who in the end was brought into the Abwehr plot, was Carl Goerdler, the lord mayor of Leipzig. He was outspoken in his opposition to the Nazis. In the spring of 1936, Goerdler "received a mes- sage from Berlin via the Nazis on his city council. The statue of Felix Men- ielssohn visible from Goer- dler's office must be re- moved, the delegation said; this monument to a Jew in Leipzig's main square of- fended National Socialist sensibilities. Goerdler or- dered the petitioners out of his office. 'When that statue goes,' he said, 'then so will I!" worked Goerdler throughout the war, con- tacting Allied governments in an effort to make a peace for Germany. But after being caught by the Nazis following the failure of the Abwehr putsch, Goerdler had a final chapter: • "Now Heinrich Himmler entered the scene and - stayed the execution. Him- mler knew the war was lost and desperately wanted to open a dialogue with the Al- lies to end the war. He thought the best route lay through neutral Sweden. "Goerdler's sympathetic SS guard, Wilhelm Bran- denburg, recalled: 'Him- mler invited him to use his close personal and political contacts with the Swedish banker Jakob Wallenberg in Stockholm, and with the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, and through them the King of Sweden. In short, he was to do what he and his circle would have done had the coup d'etat succeeded, that is, pave the way for contact with Chur- chill and end the war on ac- ceptable terms.' " Himmler backed away from the plan and Goerdler was --ultimately executed. Swedish banker Jakob Wal- lenberg was the father of Raoul Wallenberg, the Uni- versity of Michigan graduate who issued passports and protected tens of thousands of Jews in Budapest before disappear- ing at the hands of the Rus- sians at the end of the war. Mason's detailed descrip- tions of events and conver- sations, analysis of the thinking of Hitler and the many plotters, and the link- ing of all of the assassina- tion attempts to the events of the war make Mason's book more than just a his- tory of assassination. "To Kill the Devil" pro- vides important insight into the workings of the leader- ship of the Third Reich as a backdrop for the attempts to eliminate its leader. Adolf Hitler is shown during a 1936 parade in Berlin riding in his 10,000-pound, armored Mercedes-Benz. The car carried a small armory of weapons in secret compartments.