Kristallnacht family Torah reaches new generation

Published on November 8, 2012

It was the “Night of Broken Glass” in Germany, Kristallnacht — a national pogrom of death and destruction of Jewish property and the rounding up of Jews — and Dietrich (David) Hamburger was in hiding.

Loyola marymount commemorates Kristallnacht

By Tom Tugend
Published on October 31, 2012

On the night of Nov. 9-10, 1938, brown-shirted storm troopers torched and looted hundreds of synagogues and destroyed 7,500 Jewish businesses throughout Germany and Austria in what is known as Kristallnacht, “the night of broken glass.”

Austrian politician slammed for comparing protests to Kristallnacht

Published on January 31, 2012

The leader of an Austrian far-right political party was condemned for comparing protests by students in Vienna with the Nazi persecution of Jews during Kristallnacht.

Belarus synagogue vandalized again

Published on November 15, 2011

A synagogue in eastern Belarus was vandalized for the second time.

Tracking a Warsaw ghetto fighter

By Tom Tugend
Published on November 2, 2011

I met Leon Weinstein, hale and hearty at 101, three months ago and listened to his dramatic recollections as a fighter and survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, one of the bravest chapters in modern Jewish history.

Kristallnacht without my father

Published on November 2, 2011

This is the 73rd anniversary of Kristallnacht, and the first one I will mark without my father. Kristallnacht is referred to as the “night of broken glass.” But it was much more. It was the beginning of the end of most of European Jewry. It was two days of Nazi government-sponsored riots on Nov. 9 and 10, 1938, in Germany and Austria. Reported numbers vary, but about 270 synagogues were burned, 7,000 businesses and homes were damaged or destroyed, and 100 Jews were killed. Between 26,000 and 30,000 Jews were arrested and deported to concentration camps. My father was one of them. A 16-year-old boy living in Niederstetten, Germany, he was arrested on November 10 and sent to Dachau.

A Kristallnacht lesson for our generation

Published on May 16, 2011

It was Nov. 9 - Kristallnacht, the night of "broken glass" - when hundreds of Jewish businesses and virtually every synagogue throughout Germany and Austria were set ablaze. On that terrible night in 1938, my father, Sol, ran into a burning synagogue near his home in Vienna and rescued a Torah that would otherwise have been consumed by the flames. He and his brother, Morris Brafman, carried that Torah halfway around the world, ultimately bringing it to the United States, where it was restored and is currently in a yeshiva in Far Rockaway, Queens, N.Y., in an ark dedicated to the memory of my father and his wife of 55 years, my mother Rose.

PBS presents ‘God on Trial’ in Auschwitz

By Tom Tugend
Published on November 7, 2008

The prosecutor reads the charges against God: murder, collaboration with the enemy, breach of contract with His chosen people. Setting: A barrack in Auschwitz, with some 20 Jewish prisoners, half of whom will be gassed in the morning.

I remember Kristallnacht—70 years later

Published on November 7, 2008

"Vati, Vati," I call down. "If they take you, I'm going with you!" My mother has reached the door. As she opens it, she and the door are hurled against the wall. Nazis, half a dozen of them, with rifles, rush up the steps.

Sense of past leads Loyola Marymount to remember Kristallnacht

By Tom Tugend
Published on November 2, 2006

Father Michael Engh thinks it's only natural that a Catholic university host the citywide commemoration of Kristallnacht, which is marked by many historians as the beginning of the Holocaust.

Books: Kristallnacht’s memory revealed and recovered

By Michael Berenbaum
Published on November 2, 2006

Kristallnacht marked the end of Jewish life in Germany; a pivotal turning point in what later became known as the Holocaust. A generation is passing, but it is a generation that has left behind voluminous records, testimonies and memoirs, video recordings and diaries, letters and notes.

Rescued Souls and Torahs Meet at Shul

By David Finnigan
Published on November 17, 2005

Leo Baeck Temple in Bel Air hosted an unusual commemoration of Kristallnacht, the event that is often considered the beginning of the Holocaust. Instead of focusing on mourning, the gathering last weekend was marked by raucous joy and a sense of reunification.

The central symbolism was provided by guest of honor Olga Grilli, who fled Nazi-occupied Europe as an 11-year-old. On Saturday, she saw once more and touched the Torah scroll from the shul of her Czechoslovakian hometown. She had last attended this temple as a child.

Drive Seeks Airing of Sephardic Holocaust

By Tom Tugend
Published on February 17, 2005

It was June 1, 1941, Shavuot, and over the next 48 hours, Muslim rioters killed approximately 180 Jews, injured 240 more, raped Jewish women and burned and looted 586 Jewish stores and homes.

Central Coast Home to Holocaust Exhibit

By David Finnigan
Published on November 13, 2003

In a watershed event for the California central coast's small Jewish community, the Santa Barbara Jewish Federation marked the 65th anniversary of Kristallnacht by opening the city's first permanent Holocaust exhibit.

The opening shows just how far this small Jewish community has come.

Behind Restitution

By Tom Tugend
Published on November 7, 2002

Anti-Semitism Hits France

By Andrew Diamond
Published on April 4, 2002

A fresh outburst of anti-Semitic violence throughout France has Jewish leaders fearing the return of Kristallnacht.

The reference to the horrors of Nazi Germany, issued by French Jewish leader Jean Kahn, hit the French dailies, as police in Marseille were still investigating a fire that reduced a synagogue to ashes.

The incident punctuated a weekend of anti-Jewish aggression that included attacks on synagogues in Lyon and Strasbourg and a shooting at a kosher butcher shop near the southwestern city of Toulouse in which no one was injured.

In addition, a French Jewish couple was injured in a weekend attack in the southern part of the country.

When Prejudice Eclipses Pride

By Michael Aushenker
Published on November 1, 2001

Don't be misled by the play's title.

"After Crystal Night," a comedy-drama now at the Odyssey Theatre in West Los Angeles, is not a story about the November 1938 Nazi rampage. Not literally, anyway. The Kristallnacht connection is metaphorical; a reminder that what happened once in not-so-long-ago Nazi Germany could happen again if Jews grow too comfortable and passive -- even in America.