Light Up The Church

October 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 2024.

Below is the update from the stories of October 2025.

  • Kristallnacht Remembrance Set for Nov. 9

    The Bedford Interfaith Council, along with state Rep. Ken Gordon and Rabbi Susan Abramson, will host a Kristallnacht remembrance on Sunday, Nov. 9 at 5 p.m. on the Town Common (relocated to First Church of Christ in case of rain). The event will feature speakers, interfaith clergy, and music, including Bedford Public Schools Superintendent Cliff Chuang performing the theme from Schindler’s List, to honor the victims of the 1938 Night of Broken Glass. Cantorial soloist Ben Silver will lead songs, and the community is encouraged to attend and reflect on this historic tragedy.

  • Holocaust survivor Angela Orosz-Richt to speak at Kristallnacht commemoration

    Holocaust survivor Angela Orosz-Richt, one of the few children born in Auschwitz to survive, will speak on Wednesday, Nov. 5 at 5:15 p.m. in the Nott Memorial as part of a Kristallnacht commemoration. Her talk, free and open to the public, will share her rare first-hand account of survival, courage, and resilience during the Holocaust. The program also includes historian Stephen Berk, providing context on Kristallnacht’s historical and contemporary significance.

  • Kristallnacht Remembrance at 87 Years

    The Victoria Shoah Project invites the community to the annual Kristallnacht remembrance on Thursday, November 6 at 7 p.m. at Congregation Emanu-El. The event will commemorate the 1938 anti-Jewish riots through prayer, music, readings, and reflections, featuring keynote speaker Nina Krieger, former Executive Director of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre. Attendees will also participate in a public reading of the Pledge of Mutual Respect and Support, standing against antisemitism, racism, and discrimination while promoting unity and understanding.

  • First Presbyterian Church Hosts Evening of Reflection on Kristallnacht

    First Presbyterian Church in Manitowoc will host “Kristallnacht, A Night for Remembrance” on Sunday, November 9 at 3:00 p.m., honoring the victims of the Holocaust. The event will explore the history of Kristallnacht, the political conditions in pre-WWII Germany, and the role of religious groups in responding to oppression, drawing connections to today’s society. Guests are asked to enter via the 8th Street entrance at 501 North 8th Street.

  • Michael Smuss, last surviving Warsaw Ghetto Uprising fighter, dies at 99

    Michael Smuss, a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, fought Nazi soldiers with Molotov cocktails and endured multiple concentration camps before surviving a death march. After the war, he immigrated to the U.S. and later Israel, where he turned to painting to process his trauma and educate others about the Holocaust. He passed away on October 21 at the age of 99, remembered for his resilience, artistry, and enduring sense of humor.

  • They survived the Holocaust. Then their neighbors killed them

    Yoav Potash’s documentary Among Neighbors explores the complex relationships between Polish Jews and Catholics before, during, and after World War II, blending archival footage with hand-drawn animation to bring survivors’ stories to life. The film examines moral ambiguities, the resurgence of antisemitism, and the challenges of confronting uncomfortable histories, showing that heroism and complicity often coexist. Opening in select Bay Area theaters, Potash will discuss these themes in post-screening conversations.

  • ‘I have it in my blood and brain … I still haven’t been able to shake this nightmare off.’ How voices from a forgotten archive of Nazi horrors are reshaping perceptions of the Holocaust

    The testimony of Genek Granek, a Polish Holocaust survivor, recounts the horrors he witnessed from the Łódź ghetto to Auschwitz and other concentration camps, told with a haunting calm that belies his trauma. Collected by a dedicated Swedish team after the war, his story and hundreds of others reveal not only unimaginable cruelty and systemic genocide but also moments of compassion, resilience, and human solidarity. Today, these testimonies are preserved online, offering a vital reminder of humanity’s capacity for both brutality and endurance.

  • Documentary Keeps A Holocaust Survivor’s Story Alive

    Frederick Orenstein, a Jewish doctor from Hrubieszów, Poland, survived five Nazi concentration camps while most of his family and six million Jews perished. After the war, he and his brothers rebuilt their lives in the U.S., but the trauma of the Holocaust remained. Decades later, archivist Joanne Rudof used Orenstein’s 1987 testimony, along with other survivor accounts, to create the documentary *I Am Free… But Who is Left?*, preserving their stories for future generations and highlighting the human cost of dehumanization and genocide.

  • Holocaust photo: 1941 Nazi murderer now identified

    A famous Holocaust photo, long mislabeled as “The Last Jew in Vinnitsa,” has been definitively linked to a mass execution in Berdychiv, Ukraine, on July 28, 1941. Historian Jürgen Matthäus, using archival evidence, eyewitness tips, and AI facial recognition, identified the perpetrator as Nazi war criminal Jakobus Onnen, though the victim remains unknown. This discovery highlights the potential of interdisciplinary research and AI to uncover historical truths and de-anonymize Holocaust victims.

  • When Jews Were Murdered by Their Polish Neighbors After the Holocaust

    *Among Neighbors* is a documentary by Yoav Potash that uncovers the harrowing story of Holocaust survivors in the Polish town of Gniewoszow who, after surviving Nazi persecution, were often murdered by their own neighbors. Through interviews, archival research, and personal reunions—most notably between survivor Yaakov Goldstein and childhood friend Pelagia Radecka—the film restores the memory of the town’s lost Jewish community and confronts the painful truth of postwar antisemitism.

  • These Jewish Prisoners Revolted Against the Nazis, Killing Their Guards and Escaping From a World War II Death Camp

    In October 1943, Jewish prisoners at Sobibor, led by Soviet POW Alexander Pechersky and camp underground leader Leon Felhendler, orchestrated a daring revolt in which they assassinated a dozen German officers and attempted a mass escape. Though many were killed while fleeing, about 200 reached the surrounding forest, marking Sobibor as the only Nazi camp where organized Jewish resistance successfully killed a significant number of SS officers and inspired future accounts of survival and defiance.

  • ‘Works of immense force’: Artworks by Holocaust twins donated to Auschwitz

    Twin brothers Paul and André Roth, French Jewish survivors of Auschwitz, have had several of their powerful artworks donated to the Auschwitz Museum by their children after Paul’s death in 2023. The collection includes expressive sculptures depicting suffering and survival, as well as André’s painting Selection or Elimination, which illustrates the brutal selection process inside the camp. The donation sheds new light on the brothers’ experiences, as well as the wider fate of their family, most of whom were murdered during the Holocaust. Museum staff praised the works as deeply moving contributions that preserve both artistic insight and historical memory.

  • 84 years after Babyn Yar massacre, names of 1,000 previously unknown victims revealed

    On the 84th anniversary of the Babyn Yar massacre, researchers revealed the names of 1,031 previously unknown Jewish victims using newly accessed Ukrainian archives, highlighting efforts to preserve Holocaust memory despite war and historical erasure. The Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center continues to expand its database and archives, ensuring that the stories of over 100,000 victims remain documented for future generations.