The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) has held its annual Kristallnacht service to mark the anniversary of the 1938 pogrom.
The terrifying events across Nazi-occupied Germany and Europe 9 and 10 November 1938 proved to be a pivotal turning point in Nazi persecution of the Jews – from economic, political, and social exclusion to physical violence, including beatings, incarceration, and murder.
The gathering of 150 guests at Belsize Square Synagogue on Thursday 7 November heard the powerful testimony of Manfred Goldberg, a survivor of several Nazi concentration camps and an eyewitness to the November pogrom. The service was officiated by Rabbi Gabriel Botnik and Cantor Dr Paul Heller.
AJR- Kristallnacht commemoration 2024 – ©Adam Soller Photography
Manfred Goldberg recalled: “It was a nationwide orgy of smashing, breaking and burning of property belonging to Jews… Most of the shops still in Jewish ownership had a brown-shirted SA man posted outside to stop non-Jewish Germans buying from Jewish shops.
“During Kristallnacht every shop that was known as Jewish was attacked, ransacked, looted, and many of them were set on fire. I remember my heart-sinking and body trembling, witnessing my local synagogue up in smoke – it was just a heap of rubble.”
AJR- Kristallnacht commemoration 2024 – ©Adam Soller Photography
During the proceedings, six AJR Holocaust survivors, refugees and descendants lit memorials in a candle lighting ceremony and memorial prayer. Also speaking were sisters Hilary Hodsman and Gillian Field, who shared the story of their parents, Ingrid and Henry Wuga, who experienced Nazi oppression and rebuilt their lives in Great Britain.
Guests of honour included the UK envoy for Holocaust and Post Holocaust Issues, Lord Pickles and representatives from the German, Austrian, Lithuanian Embassies in London.
AJR- Kristallnacht commemoration 2024 – ©Adam Soller Photography
AJR chief executive Michael Newman said: “The terrifying testimony we’ve heard today, underscores in the rawest sense, how society and humanity can crumble. It is vital, on the anniversary of the November pogroms, that we collectively remember all those whose lives were changed forever during that fateful night and to educate people about where antisemitism unchallenged can lead.”
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