THE LAUDER FOUNDATION MARKS THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF KRISTALLNACHT
In recognition of the 60th anniversary of Kristallnacht -- the night of broken glass, the night the Holocaust began -- the Foundation helped to sponsor two commemorations on two continents: one on November 8 in New York City at the 92 Street Y, and a second on November 9 in Mannheim, Germany in that city's rebuilt synagogue.

These poignant events were especially significant to the Foundation, which had also sponsored a citywide commemoration of the 50th anniversary of this tragic night at the 92 Street Y in 1988.

Background of Kristallnacht
On Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938 Nazi atrocities against Jews began. By midday November 10, 1,400 synagogues had been burned; countless Jewish shops had been looted; all Jewish publications destroyed; and 30,000 Jews had been arrested and sent to concentration camps in Dachau and Buchenwald.

In just a period of hours, Germany's thriving Jewish life had been obliterated.

Living Witnesses
Four witnesses to the ravages of Kristallnacht in Mannheim, Germany in 1938 gave first-person accounts in New York. They included: Ernest Michel, who as a teenager witnessed the terror first-hand; Rabbi Karl Richter, who served as Rabbi of the main synagogue in Mannheim; Cantor Erwin Hirsch, who served as cantor for the synagogue; and Rudi Appel, whose Bar Mitzvah was the last to occur in Mannheim's synagogue before Kristallnacht.

Subsequently, Rabbi Richter and Cantor Hirsch flew to Mannheim to participate in that community's November 9 Kristallnacht commemoration.

The New York event was co-sponsored by the New York Jewish Community Relations Council. Associate sponsors included: American Federation of Jews from Eastern Europe; Congregation Habonim; Leo Baeck Institute; Hebrew Tabernacle Congregation of Washington Heights; Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust; and New York of Rabbis.