JUST ONE synagogue in Saxony survived Kristallnacht, the "night of broken glass" of November 9th, 1938, when Nazi mobs ransacked Jewish homes, shops and places of worship.
Plans to mark the 70th anniversary in the synagogue, in the eastern city of Görlitz, have descended into an ill-tempered tug-of-war between the city's tiny Jewish community and the town hall, with each side accusing the other of hijacking the event.
Deputy community leader Alex Jacobowitz had planned a special religious service for the synagogue, with a Kristallnacht eye witness flown in from Israel and a Torah roll brought for the occasion from Dresden.
But local officials fear that the religious service, in particular the presence of the Torah, could be classified as a reconsecration of a building owned by the city for 45 years.
"They're afraid the Jewish community wants to take back control of the synagogue by the back door, but we just want to be able to use it like every other group of people in town," said Mr Jacobowitz.
The invitation to the Jewish community to attend the city's ecumenical Kristallnacht event has now been withdrawn, he added.
Considered one of Germany's prettiest towns, Görlitz was for centuries a merchant city on the east-west route between Europe and the Far East.
The synagogue was built in 1911 for the 500-strong Jewish community and survived a small blaze on Kristallnacht. The community fared much worse, however, with just two survivors of the Holocaust.
The building was purchased by East German authorities in 1963 and, after decades of dereliction, was renovated in the 1990s. It now serves as a community centre, concert hall and, since last year, a place of worship for Görlitz's 28-strong Jewish community.
Their plans eventually to buy the building back failed when a bid of €20,000 was rejected by the town hall as too low.
Mr Jacobowitz said the mayor of Görlitz, rather than celebrating the city's Jewish heritage, had caved into pressure from the strong regional extreme-right presence.
"When the rest of Germany was burning their synagogues, Görlitz saved theirs," he said. "Now, instead of saying, 'look what we saved', they refuse to call the building a synagogue, refuse to let us use it. They are dispossessing us all these years later."
A spokesman for the Central Committee of Jews in Germany has described the row as "unworthy" and urged a quick compromise as the anniversary looms.