Kristallnacht Commemoration 80th Anniversary
November 8 at 7p.m.
Congregation Ohev Sholom
5311 W 75th St, Prairie Village, KS 66208
This year’s community-wide Kristallnacht commemoration will take place on Thursday, November 8 at 7:00 p.m., at Congregation Ohev Sholom.
This year’s program will feature German and Austrian survivors who personally witnessed the events of the 1930s. The speakers will each share their personal recollections of their childhoods including memories of early persecution, Kristallnacht, the Kindertransports and emigration.
Complimentary reservations are available by calling 913-327-8196 or emailing rsvp@mchekc.org.
These events, designed to appear as spontaneous, came to be known as Kristallnacht (commonly translated as “Night of Broken Glass”) a reference to the broken windows of synagogues, Jewish-owned stores, community centers, and homes destroyed and plundered by the rioters. In all, 267 synagogues were burned or destroyed, 7,500 Jewish businesses were vandalized or looted, at least 91 Jewish people were killed, and approximately 30,000 Jewish men were imprisoned in concentration camps. Rioters also damaged Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, and schools while police and fire brigades stood aside, under orders to intervene only if the fires threatened non-Jewish property.
Kristallnacht ended the illusion that normal Jewish life under the Nazis was still possible. It also marked a turning point in Nazi anti-Jewish policy that would culminate in the Holocaust—the systematic, state-sponsored mass murder of the European Jews.