Chagall painted it in 1938 while living in Paris, in response to the horrifying events of Kristallnacht, the "Night of Broken Glass," an anti-Jewish pogrom of official decree by propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels in Nazi Germany (including Austria and Sudetenland) from the 9th until 10 November 1938.
This figure, who appears in several of Chagall's works, has been interpreted as being either a Jewish wanderer from Yiddish tradition or the Prophet Elijah.
[3] Two changes were made by Chagall to the work, a swastika on the armband of the soldier burning the synagogue was overpainted as well as the words "Ich bin Jude" on a placard around the neck of a man.
However, he never lived in the modern state of Lithuania, which was established in February 1918 and a few weeks later adopted the flag shown in the painting.
In the upper left hand portion of the painting there are the red flags of communism, which was militantly anti-religious and opposed the use of Hebrew for any purpose.