In his letter written on 19 July 1942, Enrico Horitzky-Orsini describes the devastation of the new synagogue. In this building, the Fascist squad broke into the main hall and charged the altar: “four ancient Belgian marble pillars were toppled and broken into pieces, two majestic bronze candelabra partly dismembered and bent; various candelabra and other sacred fixtures were thrown to the ground and damaged. There is clear evidence that the attackers also unsuccessfully attempted to break open the sacred Ark containing the scrolls of the Law. Meanwhile, the fire had struck several benches and prayer books and the swirls of smoke that had invaded the whole hall were spreading outwards”.

Some of the pieces damaged in the Fascist attack are currently exhibited in a room of the Carlo and Vera Wagner Museum of the Jewish community of Trieste under a panel describing the devastation. This museum, located in the same buildings on via del Monte that once housed the oratory and the DELASEM headquarters, has a room dedicated to the Shoah.

Photograph of the broken columns displayed in the Shoah room of the Carlo e Vera Wagner Museum © Nathan Neumann		Photograph of the broken columns after the Fascist attack, 1942 © Courtesy of the Comunità Ebraica di Trieste