Every year, Jewish organizations of all kinds hold events to mark Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The Baltimore Jewish Council, however, memorializes another horrible anniversary relevant to the darkest time for Jews in modern history.
Each year, the organization honors the anniversary of Kristallnacht, or the “Night of Broken Glass.” On the night of Nov. 9-10, 1938, bands of Nazis gathered across Germany and attacked Jews, their homes, their businesses and synagogues. The name comes from the scene in many German cities the next morning, as shattered glass littered the streets.
On Nov. 6, the BJC will hold an event at Beth El Congregation in which Scott Ferencz, the nephew of former U.S. Chief Prosecutor Ben Ferencz, will discuss his uncle’s role as lead prosecutor of the Einsatzgruppen, a section of the SS, at the post-World War II Nuremberg Trials.
Ferencz will tell the story of bringing those war criminals to justice at the trials in Bavaria.
For the BJC, this history is essential to preserve because it marked a tragic start to the horror that Jews across Europe in the late 1930s would soon have to face.
“It was the first real pogrom during the Holocaust, and so synagogues and Jewish businesses were destroyed and set on fire, and Jewish men were rounded up and taken to a prison camp. And so that was really, I think, kind of the beginning,” said Emily Goodman, director of Holocaust and countering antisemitism programming at the BJC.
The annual event rotates around synagogues in the area, although it is being held at Beth El for the second consecutive year. It usually draws more than a hundred people, who gather to learn, talk, pray and memorialize the events of November 1938.
“We generally will open the program with a little historical knowledge about Kristallnacht, and then we’ll light an honorary memorial candle for the victims of the Shoah, and then we’ll go into our program,” Goodman said.
The event is even more notable than usual because it is being moderated by WBAL radio’s Robert Lang, who is a friend of a member of the Holocaust Remembrance Commission.
“We’re just really appreciative to have somebody who’s a professional interviewer partaking and dedicating or donating his time. He’s a member of the community, and it’s really great to see all areas of the community working together for this kind of event,” Goodman said.
Goodman said that memorializing Kristallnacht, not just the Holocaust at large, is so important because it also served as a turning point for the rest of the world in terms of understanding the scale of atrocities committed against Europe’s Jews.
“I think the Holocaust education and commemoration community find it to be such a significant date, and it’s important to recognize not just the attempted destruction of European Jewry, but also to show you that this was destroying cities and buildings and places of worship, and it’s important to remember that happened as well,” Goodman said.
Those looking to attend the event can go to the BJC website for more information, Goodman added. It starts at 7 p.m.
While Goodman doesn’t know for sure what Ferencz will discuss, she said herself, the BJC team, Beth El congregants and the public at large are excited for a behind-the-scenes look into the life of an American hero.
“We’re really looking forward to hearing his perspective,” she said. “You know, you have this global social justice warrior as an uncle. And we just want to know what it was like to grow up with him as your uncle. Did this influence your family dynamic at all? Did it influence you? We want to find out how his uncle’s legacy impacted the family, the family’s legacy, and, learn from him what he learned from [his] uncle.”
