Light Up The Church

December 2024: Kristallnacht News Update

Thank you again for signing the Kristallnacht declaration. Every month we send a few stories about Kristallnacht and the Holocaust that made the news in the previous month. Towards November 2025 we will share information about Light Up The Church 2024.

Below is the update from the stories of December 2024.

  • Amsterdam and ‘bystander-ism’ – Has the world learned from the hatred of Kristallnacht 86 years later?

    Following antisemitic attacks on Jewish soccer fans in Amsterdam on November 7, Holocaust educator Dr. Elana Heideman warned that history is repeating itself. Speaking to journalist Paul Calvert, she stressed the urgent need for the world to recognize the patterns of rising hatred. Until society acknowledges these warning signs, she said, Jews will continue to face growing danger worldwide.

  • Teaneck HS Marks Kristallnacht With 95-Year-Old Auschwitz Survivor

    Elie Wiesel’s call to action — “If you can, you must!” — inspired Holocaust survivor Trudy Album to speak out for over 50 years. Though initially silent to protect her children from the pain of her story, she began sharing openly when her grandchildren started asking questions. Now 95, Album continues to speak to audiences, recently addressing nearly 250 students at Teaneck High School.

  • From Kristallnacht to Kindertransport: A personal story of hope - opinion

    Last month, we commemorated Kristallnacht, the November 9–10, 1938 pogrom that marked the violent beginning of the Holocaust. Synagogues across Germany, Austria, and Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia were set ablaze, Torah scrolls desecrated, Jewish homes and businesses destroyed, and 30,000 Jewish men sent to concentration camps. As fires raged, firefighters protected only non-Jewish property, while bystanders watched silently — and I, a child then, saw the destruction firsthand when I arrived at my classroom inside the burned synagogue.

  • Journey of Hope: Retracing the Kindertransport after 85 Years

    In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the International March of the Living premiered a special documentary on January 24, 2024, commemorating the Kindertransport — the rescue of approximately 15,000 Jewish children from Nazi Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia 85 years ago. The film was unveiled at a reception in Israel hosted by President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog, with Kindertransport survivors in attendance. This powerful event took place in the shadow of the recent Hamas terror attack, underscoring the ongoing relevance of remembering and protecting Jewish life.

  • The Happiest Man on Earth

    Abraham Salomon Jakubowicz, born in Leipzig on April 14, 1920, had a joyful childhood with his parents, sister Johanna, and their dachshund, Lulu. Known affectionately as Abie, then Adie, and finally Eddie, his life took a sharp turn when Nazis expelled Jewish boys like him from school. To protect his future, his father gave him a new identity—Walter Schleif—allowing him to continue studying mechanical engineering in Tuttlingen, where he lived in an orphanage and eventually secured an internship at a prestigious engineering union.

  • Why Holocaust Education Isn’t Enough to Combat Antisemitism Today

    While Holocaust education remains a vital tool against antisemitism, it is increasingly clear that it is not enough on its own. In some cases, it fails to resonate or even fuels existing hatred, revealing the need for a broader, more modern approach. To truly combat antisemitism, we must pair Holocaust education with deeper engagement in Jewish history, the significance of Israel, and the diverse realities of Jewish life today.

  • Surviving the Holocaust: A story of resilience, humanity and hope

    Hershel Greenblat, born in the caves of Ukraine during the Holocaust, shared his story of survival at Barnesville First United Methodist Church during the dedication of a new daffodil garden. Part of “The Daffodil Project,” the garden honors the 1.5 million Jewish children who were murdered in the Holocaust. Greenblat reflected on this loss through the story of a child named Benjamin, whose life—like so many others—was ended by hatred before it could truly begin.

  • The Discovery of a Jewish Teenager’s Holocaust Diary Reveals How Songs, Jokes and Stories Served as Cultural Resistance

    Folklore often emerges from catastrophe, offering stability and solidarity amid tragedy, including during the Holocaust. One striking example is featured in the exhibition Yitskhok Rudashevski: A Teenager’s Account of Life and Death in the Vilna Ghetto, launched in July 2024 by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. This online exhibit reveals how even in the face of horror, folklore preserved community and memory.

  • Holocaust survivor spreads lessons from history through music

    Ninety-nine-year-old Holocaust survivor Saul Dreier was just a teenager when he was taken from his home in Poland and imprisoned in concentration camps during World War II. Having survived unimaginable horrors, he now dedicates his life to sharing the lessons of the Holocaust. Through music and storytelling, he reaches people of all generations in a powerful and unique way.

  • 'Touched by God' - Escaping the Holocaust

    Newlyweds Erwin and Selma Diwald were forced to flee Austria due to the escalating threat of antisemitism under Hitler’s regime. Before meeting at a cousin’s wedding in 1936, both led promising lives in Vienna—Erwin as a successful lawyer and Selma as a pharmacy student with plans to run her uncle’s drugstore. Their daughter, Frances Mendelsohn, now shares their remarkable journey of love, resilience, and survival.

  • What Was Kristallnacht? The Horrors of the Night of Broken Glass

    In My German Question: Growing Up in Nazi Berlin, historian Peter Gay vividly recalls witnessing the aftermath of Kristallnacht on November 10, 1938. As he cycled through Berlin, he observed a city ravaged by destruction—broken glass and looted stores testifying to the violence orchestrated by the Nazi regime. This state-sanctioned pogrom, targeting Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, and homes across the Third Reich, marked a chilling escalation in Nazi antisemitic policy. Kristallnacht, or the “Night of Broken Glass,” was not only a moment of terror but also a clear harbinger of the mass persecution and genocide that would soon follow.