Memorializing the Victims of the Kristallnacht Pogrom in Bremen, 1938
The city of Bremen will hold a memorial ceremony on November 8, 2024, to honour the Bremen victims of the November pogroms of 1938. The event will take place at the memorial site in Dechanatstraße, and will start at 11:00 AM.
Kristallnacht, or the "Night of Broken Glass", was a state-organised series of violent attacks against Jewish people, businesses, synagogues, and institutions across Germany and Austria. It marked a significant escalation in Nazi anti-Semitic policy, moving from social and economic exclusion to physical violence and destruction.
Bremen, a major port and industrial city in northwestern Germany, had a substantial Jewish community. During Kristallnacht, the Jewish population of Bremen faced widespread attacks, with their synagogues and prayer houses set on fire or severely damaged, Jewish-owned shops and homes looted, vandalised, or destroyed, and many Jewish men arrested and deported to concentration camps.
The memorial ceremony will be co-shaped by students from the Gymnasium Horn, St.-Johannis-Schule, and the Landesrabbiner of the Jewish Community of Bremen, Netanel Teitelbaum. Dr. Anastassia Pletoukhina, a social scientist and leading representative of the Jewish Agency for Israel in Berlin, will be the speaker at the ceremony.
Dr. Pletoukhina is a survivor of the antisemitic attack on the synagogue in Halle (Saale) in 2019, and her presence at the ceremony is a testament to the resilience of the Jewish community in the face of adversity. The students' presentation will showcase their commitment to democracy and the importance of remembering the past to prevent such atrocities from happening again.
The memorial ceremony is open to the public and serves as an opportunity for Bremen's residents and visitors to reflect on the city's history of persecution during the Holocaust and to honour the memory of those who suffered or were killed during the November pogroms of 1938. A plaque on the memorial commemorates the victims of the Reich pogrom night, including five citizens of Jewish faith who were murdered on the night of November 9-10 in 1938.
Bremen has taken steps to remember those who suffered or were killed and to educate about the dangers of hatred and intolerance. The memorial ceremony is an important part of this ongoing effort to ensure that the memory of the Bremen victims of the November pogroms of 1938 is never forgotten.
- Despite the horrors of war-and-conflicts like Kristallnachr, some cities, like Bremen, strive to maintain a peaceful lifestyle by honoring their victims through ceremonies.
- Cultural-travel can include visits to sites of historical significance, such as the memorial site in Dechanatstraße, Bremen, which commemorates the city's Jewish community victims of Kristallnacht.
- General-news coverage often features stories about crime-and-justice, but it's equally important to highlight events like the memorial ceremony in Bremen, which underscores the importance of remembering the past and preventing future injustices.
- If you're planning travel, you might consider scheduling a visit to Bremen during the memorial ceremony on November 8, 2024, to gain a deeper understanding of the city's history, particularly their experiences during war-and-conflicts like the November pogroms of 1938.
