In honor of the 82nd anniversary of Kristallnacht – The Night of Broken Glass – The International March of the Living hosted a Kristallnacht Commemoration in partnership with The Miller Center for Community Protection and Resilience at Rutgers University, and the Jüdischen Gemeinde Frankfurt.
Click on the video player below to watch the full program.
The program includes:
- Kristallnacht testimony from witness Norbert Strauss and archival testimony provided by the USC Shoah Foundation
- Keynote address from noted Auschwitz-Birkenau survivor Irving Roth
- Paul S. Miller, Miller Center for Community Protection and Resilience, Rutgers University
- Prof. John J. Farmer Jr., Director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics of Rutgers University and the Miller Center for Community Protection and Resilience
- Dr. Joel Finkelstein, Rutgers Center for Secure Communities
- Stephan Kramer, President of the State-Agency for the Protection of the Constitution in Thuringia, Germany
- Moderated by Richard D. Heideman, President of the American Zionist Movement
- Musical presentations by past March of the Living performers
This Kristallnacht commemoration is part of a global “Let There be Light” campaign where individuals, institutions, and Houses of Worship around the world are invited to keep their lights on during the night of November 9 as a symbol of solidarity and mutual commitment in the shared battle against antisemitism, racism, hatred, and intolerance.
As part of this virtual initiative, people from all over the world, of all religions and backgrounds, are invited to write personal messages of hope in their own words on the campaign website: www.motl.org/let-there-be-light.
Included among the many venerable places of worship being illuminated are the main synagogue in Frankfurt (one of the few synagogues not destroyed on Kristallnacht), and the Old City Walls in Jerusalem.
Against the backdrop of rising antisemitism, racism, and the shadow of Covid-19, these expressions of optimism and unity will help illuminate the world against darkness and hatred.
