Hundreds of local residents will gather to commemorate one of the most tragic days in modern Jewish history, as the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach, a committee of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, observes the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, on Sunday, November 10, at 6 p.m.
The ceremony will take place at the Holocaust Memorial, 1933-1945 Meridian Avenue, Miami Beach, with a program of inspirational addresses, poetry readings, musical performances and remembrances.
The Kristallnacht commemoration is free of charge and open to the public. Free parking will be available in the municipal parking lot directly to the south of the Holocaust Memorial. In case of rain, the program will be held at Temple Emanu-El, 1701 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach.
The keynote address will be delivered by Wendy Reiss Rothfield, LCSW, who will provide eyewitness testimony of her family’s escape from Vienna, Austria, during the Anschluss, the union between Germany and Austria, which transpired before Kristallnacht in 1938. As Nazi Germany incorporated Austria, the streets of Austria erupted in a violent frenzy against Jews, and newly enacted legislation excluded Jews from economic, social and cultural life, and legalized the confiscation of Jewish property.
Other speakers will include Andrew C. Hall, Esq., Chair of the Holocaust Memorial; Chaim Shacham, Consul General of Israel to Florida and Puerto Rico; and Dr. Miriam Klein Kassenoff, renowned Holocaust studies educator. The program will feature memorial songs by the children’s choir of the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center and participation by teenagers attending the 2014 March of the Living.
Widely considered to be a major turning point in Hitler’s campaign to annihilate the Jewish people, Kristallnacht was marked by a series of coordinated attacks in Germany and parts of Austria on November 9-10, 1938, which caused the deaths of 91 Jews and the incarceration of 30,000 in concentration camps. The streets were covered with broken glass from the shattered windows of Jewish-owned buildings, stores and synagogues that were vandalized and looted during the attacks.
The Kristallnacht program is sponsored by the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach, a committee of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation. It is supported by the City of Miami Beach Cultural Affairs Program, Cultural Arts Council.
For more information, visit www.HolocaustMemorialMiamiBeach.org or call 305-538-1663.
