Kristallnacht Commemoration
In Heaven, Underground
November 9 at 7p.m.
The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah
12320 Nall Ave, Overland Park, KS 66209
This year’s community-wide Kristallnacht commemoration will take place on Thursday, November 9 at 7:00 p.m., at The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah. It will feature the film In Heaven Underground: The Weissensee Jewish Cemetery. North of Berlin’s noisy city center lies the peaceful and secluded 130-year-old Weissensee Jewish Cemetery, the largest Jewish cemetery still in use in Europe. Its one hundred acres hold 115,000 graves and a meticulous archive record. The cemetery has never closed, and was one of the few institutions to remain in Jewish hands during the Nazi regime. Through the story of one cemetery, this film follows the history of German Jews for over a century, and offers a poignant commentary on the community that was lost during the Holocaust.
(Running time: 90 minutes, German with English subtitles)
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.