The absence of Jews after the Shoah was felt nowhere more than in Germany and Poland. Prewar Poland had the largest share of Jewish inhabitants in the world. Cities such as Warsaw, Łódź, and Lwów, to say nothing of the shtetls in eastern Poland, were hardly imaginable without their large Jewish communities and the Jewish contribution to the social, economic, and cultural life of these places. Prewar Germany didn't know Jewish communities of that size. Even in Berlin—Germany's most Jewish city before 1933—Jews accounted for less than five percent of the overall population. Nonetheless, Berlin, Frankfurt, and Breslau were among the world's leading centers of Jewish life, and the impact of German Jews on the economic rise and cultural vibrancy of Berlin and other cities in Germany was enormous.

As Michael Meng shows in his fascinating study Shattered Spaces, the postwar absence of Jews from German and Polish cities and towns was a noisy one. Not only were memories of the Holocaust still fresh, but people also stumbled over ruined synagogues, abandoned Jewish cemeteries, and other sites that called to mind the disturbing political developments that had led to the destruction of these countries' Jewish communities. Meng's question is as straightforward as it is intriguing: what did the societies and governments of postwar Poland, and of East and West Germany, do with these Jewish ruins? While Poles and Germans played entirely different roles during the Holocaust, both had to come to terms with the sudden disappearence of the Jewish communities in their midst, and they had to face the questions posed by the ruins about the levels of responsibility for anti-Jewish discrimination, persecution, and mass murder.

The book consists of five chronological chapters, spanning the immediate postwar years to the present. Each chapter identifies a particular phase in the postwar history of dealing with Jewish ruins. Meng's comparative approach works well since it sheds light on striking similarities and important differences between the three countries (now two, since German reunification). Also, by focusing on Jewish synagogues and cemeteries in three second-tier cities—Wrocław, Potsdam, and Essen—he is better positioned to draw conclusions for the nations as a whole, rather than possibly being misled by the specific situation of the national capitals.

Among the most intriguing results of Shattered Spaces is the remarkable discrepancy between the neglect or demolition of Jewish ruins during the postwar reconstruction of Poland and the two Germanies, and the careful restoration of the remaining Jewish architectural sites during the last twenty years or so. The fate of the synagogue in Essen is a case in point. The massive neo-Romanesque edifice from the beginning of the twentieth century survived the war but, after years of neglect and dilapidation, the “shopping city” Essen could think of no better use for the building than as a House of Industrial Design, an exhibition hall for the display of washing machines, office chairs, and other consumer goods produced during West Germany's “economic miracle.” It wasn't until the late 1970s that this was no longer considered appropriate and historically sensitive. In 1980, the historical exhibition “Resistance and Persecution in Essen, 1933–1945” took over the space. Three decades later, after a beautiful restoration, the Old Synagogue reopened as a House of Jewish Culture. While the local Jewish community is still too small to use the large edifice as a temple, the Old Synagogue has nonetheless again become a Jewish place.

The fate of other Jewish sites in Germany and Poland follows a similar trajectory from long-time neglect and dilapidation to a more recent rediscovery and restoration. Meng does an excellent job of describing this development, and illustrates the differences and similarities through his well-chosen case studies. It is much harder, of course, to explain the shift from postwar neglect to the recent appreciation of Jewish sites. In explaining the neglect, Meng stresses the desire of many Germans and Poles to repress the unsettling memories of the Holocaust, whereas he attributes the newfound appreciation for the Jewish past in Poland and Germany mainly to what he aptly calls “redemptive cosmopolitanism, a performative embrace of the Jewish past that celebrates the liberal, democratic nation-state rather than thinking critically about its past and present failures” (p. 250).

The reviewer appreciates Meng's courage and skill in developing strong theses, and he believes in the validity of both explanations. He would have liked to see more caution in presenting them as the main explanations, however—especially since textual evidence is so hard to come by. It is difficult to find out what Germans and Poles really felt when they encountered Jewish sites. Was it really “a deep sense of anxiety about the Holocaust” (p. 258) or was it the same indifference that had made the Holocaust possible? While the desire to repress unsettling memories and to evade uncomfortable questions about personal and collective responsibility surely played a role in the treatment of Jewish ruins, their neglect and removal is also owed to fact that they had lost their cultural context. With few Jews left in Germany and Poland after the war, and with non-Jewish citizens not ready to consider synagogues and Jewish cemeteries part of their heritage, Jewish sites were doomed.

It took several decades before Germans and Poles began to perceive the Jewish past as an integral part of their countries' history, and the restoration and revitalization of Jewish historical landmarks worth the effort and expense. Meng is right in pointing to the phenomenon of “redemptive cosmopolitanism.” At the same time, however, we should not underestimate the sincerity and intellectual depth of German and Polish historical debates regarding the mass crimes of the twentieth century. It would be difficult to name national societies that conducted the painful public discussions about the collective responsibility for mass crimes, antisemitism, the dangers of nationalism, and appropriate ways of remembering the Holocaust and other forms of mass violence with more seriousness, larger societal involvement, and farther-reaching consequences for their national self-image.

These critical remarks aside, Shattered Spaces is an important, thought-provoking, and highly readable book. Students of German-Jewish and Polish-Jewish relations, as well as those interested in urban and memory studies, might want to consult it.