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The first new synagogue to be built in the former East Germany since World War II. The old synagogue was razed on 9 November 1938 - known as Kristallnacht, or the night of broken glass - when Nazi sympathisers rampaged through German towns destroying Jewish property. Dresden's Jewish population was all but wiped out by the Nazis - dropping, according to some figures, from 6,000 to around 50. But like elsewhere in Germany, numbers have swelled in recent years aided by immigration from the former Soviet Union. One remnant of the original synagogue - built by one of the most prominent German architects of the 19th Century, Gottfried Semper - was returned to the new building. A local firefighter, salvaged the original Star of David as the synagogue burned and hid it in his home until after the war. The star was installed above the entrance of the new building. The new structure is a daring modern cube construction and the site of the original building is still marked by glass splinters in the ground. The architecture is based on the form of the first Israelite temples. The gradual twisting of the building serves to turn the direction for prayer to the East.