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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

Kristallnacht Program Tomorrow: "Some Were Neighbors"


United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Historian Susan D. Bachrach, Ph.D. will speak about the museum’s "Some Were Neighbors” exhibit at the 23rd annual Kristallnacht Program hosted by the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Project. The event will be held tomorrow evening, November 5 at 7 pm in the Warshof Conference Center, Flynn Campus Center (Monroe A & B). Tickets are free and available at http://www.monroecctickets.com. This event is open to the public.

Bachrach’s presentation will address the "millions of ordinary people who witnessed the crimes of the Holocaust—in the countryside and city squares, in stores and schools, in homes and workplaces. Across Europe, the Nazis found countless willing helpers who collaborated or were complicit in their crimes." "Some Were Neighbors" explores the motives and pressures that led individuals to abandon their fellow human beings as well as why others chose to help.

What is Kristallnacht?
In November 1938, mass frenzy broke out in Austria and Germany. Synagogues were destroyed and burned, Jewish homes were assaulted, and Jewish-owned stores were shattered and looted.  In many places, Jews were physically attached. About 30,000 Jews, especially the influential and wealthy, were arrested and were thrown into concentration camps. Every November, people around the world pause to remember Kristallnacht. The name Kristallnacht comes from Kristallglas (beveled plate glass) and refers to the broken shop windows of Jewish stores. Kristallnacht was the Nazis’ first experience of large-scale, anti-Jewish violence. It opened the way for the complete eradication of the Jews’ position in Germany.

Holocaust, Genocide
and Human Rights Project
11/04/2014