Light Up The Church

May 2025: 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 2025.

Below is the update from the stories of May 2025.

  • Holocaust Survivor Hannah Holsten Shares Her Story on the Harvey School Campus

    Holocaust survivor Hannah Holsten visited the Harvey School to share her powerful story, reminding students of the dangers of silence and the importance of standing against injustice. Organized with the Jewish Culture Club and academic departments, the event marked Holocaust Memorial Day and offered a rare firsthand account of survival. Holsten recounted her family’s narrow escapes, acts of courage, and the cruelty they faced, emphasizing that Hitler’s rise was enabled by widespread complicity. Her testimony will now be preserved as a graduation tradition, ensuring that future generations carry forward the lessons of the Holocaust.

  • 97-year-old Holocaust survivor's wish of attending college comes true

    Jacqueline Kimmelstiel, a 97-year-old Holocaust survivor, fulfilled her lifelong dream of going to college for a day at the University of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx. With help from her senior living facility’s “Golden Wishes” program, she participated in poetry and French lessons, became an honorary basketball captain, and received a Certificate of Achievement. Forced into hiding during the Holocaust, Kimmelstiel never had the chance to study beyond age 12, making the experience especially meaningful for her and her family. Surrounded by her grandchildren, she reflected on how proud her late husband would have been and expressed a continued love for learning.

  • From horror to hope: Reflections from Dachau and Auschwitz

    The author recounts their visits to Dachau and Auschwitz-Birkenau as profoundly life-altering experiences that revealed the unimaginable cruelty and systematic evil of the Holocaust. Walking through barracks, gas chambers, and execution sites, they describe the horrifying scenes and emotional weight borne by survivors and descendants. The transformation of House 88, once the home of Auschwitz Commandant Rudolf Höss, into ARCHER—a research center against hate and extremism—highlights both the banality of evil and the need for vigilance. Ultimately, the piece calls for remembrance, action, and education to ensure that “never again” becomes a reality, not an empty promise.

  • Germany lays to rest Margot Friedlaender, Holocaust survivor key to remembrance culture

    Margot Friedlaender, a Holocaust survivor and prominent voice in Germany’s remembrance culture, was laid to rest in Berlin at age 103. Her funeral, attended by President Steinmeier and Chancellor Merz, honored her lifelong commitment to Holocaust education and reconciliation. Born in Berlin, she survived the Theresienstadt concentration camp and later emigrated to New York, only returning to Germany decades later to share her story. Her powerful memoir, *Try To Make Your Life*, reflects both her personal resilience and her mother’s final message of hope.

  • Victory over Nazism and the rise of a Jewish homeland: a personal reflection – opinion

    Eighty years after the end of World War II, Holocaust survivors like the author remember both the immense loss and the heroic resistance of the Jewish people. From deportation as a child in Moldova to surviving Nazi atrocities and ultimately making aliyah to Israel, the author’s life reflects both tragedy and triumph. Jews not only endured persecution but also fought back—on battlefields, in ghettos, and through partisan resistance. Today, with antisemitism rising again, the message is clear: Jewish survival depends not on others, but on Jewish strength, unity, and the enduring promise of “Never again.”

  • Healing Holocaust Survivors: An Interview with Stella Maria Frei

    Stella Maria Frei’s *Healing Holocaust Survivors* reveals how postwar psychological rehabilitation in Displaced Persons camps was deeply political, shaping survivors into ideal citizens for emerging nation-states. Humanitarian efforts by organizations like UNRRA and the JDC combined genuine care with ideological goals, using psychology as a tool for governance. Frei reframes the immediate postwar years as emotionally complex and geopolitically charged, marked by both trauma and a radical hope for peace. Her work challenges us to see history not just as remembrance, but as a call to ethical responsibility today.

  • Hear the stories of Holocaust survivors through virtual reality

    This week, Centreville Regional Library is offering a powerful virtual reality experience in partnership with the Illinois Holocaust Museum, allowing visitors to walk through Auschwitz alongside Holocaust survivors. Featured stories include George Brent and Fritzie Fritzshall, whose firsthand accounts guide participants through the camps. The initiative, part of “The Journey Back: A VR Experience,” aims to educate and inspire action against injustice. The program runs May 10–15 and is recommended for ages 12 and up.

  • Pupils design candleholder for Holocaust survivor

    Students at Northgate High School designed a candleholder to honor Holocaust survivor Frank Bright, who dedicated his life to education until his death in 2023. The artwork, part of the national 80 Candles tour, features carvings and quotes from Bright, including his mission to keep the memory of his classmates alive. The project is linked to the Dora Love Prize, which encourages students to stand against hate and exclusion. It serves as both a tribute and a call to remember history through creative expression.

  • 'You are our victory': Holocaust survivor tells her story to female Israeli soldiers

    Holocaust survivor Sarah Weinstein, 96, recently met with two female IDF soldiers from the Home Front Command’s Rescue and Evacuation Brigade. Born in what is now Ukraine, Weinstein was forced into a ghetto at age five and survived under brutal conditions. A courageous guard named Popel risked his life to smuggle her family out, hiding them in his home before he and his family were tragically executed. Her story highlights both the horrors of the Holocaust and the bravery of those who resisted it.

  • Israel pauses as the Jewish state honors and remembers victims of the Holocaust

    On Yom Hashoah, Israel paused to honor the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, with a national ceremony held under the theme “Out of the Depths.” Leaders drew connections between past atrocities and present threats, including the October 7 Hamas attacks. Holocaust survivors, freed hostages, and officials participated in tributes, including the March of the Living at Auschwitz. The day served as both a remembrance and a call to protect Jewish life against rising antisemitism worldwide.

  • Thousands, including Holocaust survivors and freed Israeli hostages, march from Auschwitz to Birkenau

    Thousands marched from Auschwitz to Birkenau in the 2025 March of the Living, marking 80 years since the camps' liberation. Among the 8,000 participants were 80 Holocaust survivors and 10 former Hamas hostages, symbolizing both remembrance and resilience. Israeli President Herzog and Polish President Duda emphasized the march's relevance amid current global conflicts and antisemitism. The event honored Holocaust victims while calling for unity, justice, and the safe return of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.

  • The lessons of the Holocaust are for everyone

    This powerful reflection highlights the vital importance of Holocaust remembrance—not just as tribute, but as a warning. Through the stories of Grandma Sarah and Aunt Irene, it honors the resilience of survivors and the weight of trauma carried in silence. By linking past atrocities to the rise of modern extremism and antisemitism, it reminds us that memory must lead to moral action. Hate never vanishes—it waits for silence, and only vigilance can keep it at bay.

  • The horrors of the Holocaust still haunt Jews to this day - opinion

    This reflection eloquently captures the emotional gravity of bearing witness—from Auschwitz to Tel Aviv—and the astonishing resilience of survivors across generations. The image of Holocaust and October 7 survivors walking side-by-side is a living testament to defiance, unity, and the will to rebuild. Stories like those of Moran Stella Yanai and Aaron Vegh show that healing is not forgetting, but choosing dignity and life despite trauma. Ultimately, this piece reminds us that memory is more than a weight—it is a torch lighting the way forward.

  • How ordinary Germans reacted to the build up to WW2 | The road to Kristallnacht

    In this episode, historian, author and filmmaker Laurence Rees charts key milestones in the erosion of free speech, free press and the rule of law in 1930s Germany, as Hitler and the Nazi party cemented their power. Rees explains how the new Nazi laws targeted the rights of Jews and discriminated against other groups, policies which escalated to brutal violence in episodes such as the Night of the Long Knives and Kristallnacht. How did the Nazis hold such sway over the large population. And is it really possible to know how far ‘ordinary’ Germans supported the Nazi regime?

  • Hitler's former Jewish neighbor recounts life in Nazi Germany - report

    This remarkable account from Edgar Feuchtwanger offers a chillingly intimate glimpse into history—one where a young Jewish boy grew up across the street from Adolf Hitler. Now 100, Feuchtwanger’s memories are among the last living threads connecting us directly to the rise of Nazi Germany. His reflections remind us how thin the line can be between ordinary life and historic catastrophe, and how even proximity to power does not always translate to protection. That he and his family escaped in 1939 is a testament to both luck and foresight—two forces that spared them, even as millions were not.

  • How did WW2 begin? Laurence Rees on the road to war

    This overview by Laurence Rees traces the chilling progression of Nazi ideology and aggression that led to World War II. From Hitler’s obsession with racial purity and scapegoating Jews, to the calculated expansionism of the late 1930s, each step marked a deliberate escalation. Key moments like the Anschluss, the failure of the Évian Conference to protect Jewish refugees, and the appeasement over the Sudetenland exposed the world's reluctance to confront rising tyranny. Coupled with internal violence like Kristallnacht, these events culminated in the invasion of Poland—a point of no return that plunged the world into war.

  • Margot Friedländer, 1 of the last Holocaust survivors, dead

    Margot Friedländer’s passing at 103 marks the end of an era—and the loss of one of the last living Holocaust survivors who dedicated her life to remembrance and reconciliation. Despite losing her entire family to Auschwitz and surviving Theresienstadt, she returned to Germany in her late 80s to share her story, especially with young people, always choosing humanity over hatred. Her message—*“We cannot change what happened, but it must never happen again”*—defined a life of extraordinary moral courage. Friedländer’s voice may be gone, but her legacy remains a powerful call to memory, compassion, and vigilance.