When synagogues burned all over Germany on November 9, 1938 (“Crystal Night”), the Cottbus Synagogue was destroyed, too. It is said that the fire brigade called in did not extinguish the flames in the synagogue, but only prevented the fire from spreading to neighbouring houses. The 14-year-old Heinz Petzold witnessed the event: „On the night of November 9th to 10th, my father woke me up, it must have been around midnight, brought me to the window and pointed north of the city, where we could clearly see a blazing fire. On closer inspection, I recognized the dome of the Cottbus synagogue, which looked like a glowing mass. (...) At school, our class teacher, who was an SS man, gave us an hour's free time with the remark, "so that you can see what the Jews deserve". We went to the synagogue (...) the fire brigade was on site, but did not extinguish the still smouldering fire inside the synagogue." Today, a plaque commemorates the destroyed synagogue at the former site.
Source: stadtmuseum-cottbus.de
The Chanukka-candlestick was discovered in the rubble of the burnt-out synagogue. A Social Democrat, who helped with the clean-up, allegedly threw it over a fence on the property of a Cottbus master painter. He hid the candlestick in a barrel of powder paint and handed it over to the Cottbus City Museum in 1947.