Annual Kristallnacht Commemoration

A record number of around 500 people joined this year’s Kristallnacht commemoration, held online yesterday for the first time due to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.

 

Michael Newman, Chief Executive of the AJR and Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg from New North London Synagogue, both descendants of refugees, spoke live during the event. Austrian Ambassador Michael Zimmerman pre-recorded his message at Belsize Square Synagogue, the usual location for this annual event, while Hannah Lessing, General Secretary of the Austrian National Fund, joined from the Stadttempel in the Seitenstettengasse, Vienna. Both shuls have a rich history linked to the Holocaust. The event also featured testimonies from AJR members Robert Shaw, John Izbicki and Kur Marx, the latter two extracted from interviews in the AJR’s Refugee Voices Archive.

 

We were inundated with messages of thanks following the online event. Care coordinators at Sunridge Court in Golders Green wrote, “We had 15 residents attending and after they said it was beautiful, very moving as well as informative. Some of our residents are members of Belsize Square Synagogue so it was extra special for them.”

 

Jenny Evans, a AJR third generation member from Birmingham who is disabled and has never been able to attend the ceremony in person said, “May I thank you for the opportunity to attend the AJR commemoration of Kristallnacht. Please extend my thanks to all those involved. It was beautifully presented.”

 

AJR member Jacques Weisser said, “Today’s ‘Digital’ Remembrance and Commemoration of Kristallnacht was, if at all possible and in some ways, even more poignant than usual. The whole event was incredibly moving and even though we could not be together in person at Belsize Square Shul there was tremendous and palpable resonance in the way it was produced and I am sure received by all attendees.”