Light Up The Church

November 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 2024 we will share information about Light Up The Church 2024.

Below is the update from the stories of November 2024.

  • Holocaust survivor recounts Kristallnacht in mixed-reality project

    A new mixed-reality project titled Inside Kristallnacht uses virtual reality and the testimony of 92-year-old Holocaust survivor Charlotte Knobloch to immerse users in the events of Kristallnacht. Through VR headsets, users witness reenactments of the 1938 Nazi pogrom as Knobloch recounts her childhood experience of the violence. The initiative is a collaboration between several global organizations aiming to preserve Holocaust memory for future generations using advanced technology.

  • Eighty years after thousands of Greek Jews were murdered, Thessaloniki’s Holocaust museum is finally set to open

    The old railway station of Thessaloniki, where thousands of Greek Jews were deported to Auschwitz, is now the site of a long-awaited Holocaust museum, symbolizing Greece's tragic wartime history. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited the site with a message of remorse, as construction begins on the octagonal museum set for completion in 2026 with Germany contributing €10 million. The museum honors the memory of the 50,000 Jews lost—90% of Thessaloniki's Jewish population—once part of a vibrant community known as the “Mother of Israel.”

  • A Holocaust Historian’s Parting Lessons

    This year’s Sukkot carried extra sorrow, marking a year since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and coinciding with the death of Yehuda Bauer, a renowned Holocaust historian and survivor who fled Prague in 1939. Bauer, remembered for his sharp intellect and humor, left behind a self-eulogy reflecting both humility and pride in his life’s work. Among his lasting insights was the belief that the Holocaust was unique due to its global aim to exterminate all Jews and its ideologically driven nature, which rejected even pragmatic alternatives like forced labor.

  • Lies, Truth, and the Moral Compass of Holocaust Education

    As a tour guide at the burnt vehicles compound, the author reflects on how the ruins from October 7 serve as painful evidence amid growing denial. A scheduled visit by a group titled “Denial of Nova” stirred anxiety, especially after reports that they had accused a survivor of lying, leading to the visit’s cancellation. The incident underscored the urgent need to defend truth in a time when falsehoods can easily gain traction.

  • DC kosher restaurant has windows smashed on eve of Kristallnacht anniversary

    Char Bar, one of Washington, DC’s only kosher restaurants, had its windows smashed over the weekend, coinciding with the anniversary of Kristallnacht. The act, reminiscent of antisemitic violence in Nazi Germany, comes amid a global surge in antisemitic incidents since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. This is not the first time Char Bar has been targeted, with a similar attack occurring in 2020.

  • Kristallnacht’s legacy still haunts Hamburg − even as the city rebuilds a former synagogue burned in the Nazi pogrom

    At just 8 years old, Johanna Neumann witnessed Nazis and locals vandalize Hamburg’s grand Bornplatz Synagogue during Kristallnacht in 1938, as sacred items were desecrated and burned. The synagogue, one of Germany’s largest, was among many Jewish institutions destroyed in the state-orchestrated pogrom. Following the violence, hundreds of Jews were killed, 30,000 men were sent to camps, and the Jewish community was unjustly fined and forced to sell the ruined synagogue.

  • 86 years after Kristallnacht, German congregation gets back key to destroyed synagogue

    On November 9, 1938, 16-year-old Marianne Katzenstein locked her family’s synagogue in Bielefeld after practicing the organ, unaware it would be burned down that night during Kristallnacht. Only a Torah scroll and her key survived the fire, which she kept for the rest of her life. Her daughter, Cantor Jennifer Bern-Vogel, recalls how emotionally her mother would recount the story, often moving listeners to silence when showing the key.

  • Historic calculators invented in Nazi concentration camp will be on exhibit at Seattle Holocaust center

    The Curta calculator, invented by Austrian engineer Curt Herzstark while imprisoned in Buchenwald during WWII, is a remarkable symbol of ingenuity and survival. Despite the horrors of the concentration camp, Herzstark was allowed to continue his design work, later producing the world’s leading portable mechanical calculator until the 1970s. Now on display at Seattle’s Holocaust Center for Humanity, the Curta is celebrated by collectors like Don Rosen, who sees in it a legacy of resilience and brilliance.

  • Young Canadians most likely to be Holocaust skeptics, poll finds

    A recent survey by Leger for the Association for Canadian Studies revealed that 16% of Canadians aged 18–24 believe Jews exaggerate the Holocaust — a rate notably higher than older age groups. The study also found a strong link between Holocaust denial and antisemitic views, with over half of those who believed Jews exaggerated the Shoah also holding negative opinions of the Jewish community. In contrast, 81% of those who strongly rejected Holocaust exaggeration expressed positive views of Jews.

  • Holocaust survivor shares story of journey to Auschwitz

    In a disarmingly frank interview, Holocaust survivor Freddie Knoller, now in his 90s, tells his story of survival during World War II.

  • ‘Holocaust Codes’ pits British codebreaker against SS leader in battle for secrecy

    In The Holocaust Codes, Christian Jennings reveals how Allied codebreakers at Bletchley Park also targeted SS and German police communications, aiming to uncover details of the Holocaust. Unlike the better-known efforts against military transmissions, this was a shadowy battle against Nazi secrecy, where even silence served to hide atrocities. Jennings emphasizes that Allied codebreaking extended beyond battlefield strategy, touching the chilling core of the Nazi genocide machine.

  • Just after Kristallnacht, Gandhi said Jews should die with joy. What would he say now?

    In a 1938 article titled “The Jews,” published shortly after Kristallnacht, Mahatma Gandhi controversially urged Europe’s Jews to embrace nonviolent resistance, even in the face of likely extermination. He wrote that, were he a Jew in Germany, he would claim it as his home and peacefully resist persecution, accepting death without fear. Though death camps had not yet begun operating, Gandhi’s words reflected both a profound misunderstanding of Nazi brutality and a troubling suggestion that Jews face their fate without resistance.