By Nathan Duke
More than 200 people gathered to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht Monday at Bayside’s Queensborough Community College, where survivors recalled their experiences during the cataclysmic night and speakers vowed to “never forget” the Holocaust.
Kristallnacht, which means “night of broken glass,” occurred on Nov. 9−10, 1938, by order of German Chancellor Adolf Hitler. An estimated 191 synagogues and 815 Jewish−owned shops throughout the country were destroyed during the two−day period, which historians view as a turning point leading up to the Jewish genocide at the hands of the Nazis.
“This is something we must never, never forget,” Deputy Borough President Karen Koslowitz said during the event. “We must remind everyone that this will never happen again.”
Flushing residents Erich Heymann, 88, and his wife, Claire Heymann, 84, each recounted their tales of surviving the night punctuated by the sound of glass breaking and the Holocaust during Queensborough’s event. The couple, who met in the United States, both lost most of their families during the Nazi government’s campaign to eradicate European Jewery.
Erich Heymann was 18 years old during Kristallnacht. He rode his bicycle to the factory in Cologne at which he worked, but was not turned in to the Nazis. Heymann later fled to South America, but his parents were murdered by the Nazis. At Queensborough’s event, Heymann held up a shawl that he salvaged during Kristallnacht.
Claire Heymann, who was 14 at the time, was arrested in Grossheubach along with her family during the two−day pogrom and placed in a labor camp in Berlin. Only Claire and one of her five siblings survived the Holocaust. She said her father had attempted to rush to one of the burning synagogues on Kristallnacht.
“My father heard they were burning the synagogue and he wanted to save the Torah,” she said. “But they wouldn’t let my father go. Two Nazis came to him and said, ‘You’d better go before we kill you.’ ”
Cantor Moti Fuchs, of the Hillcrest Jewish Center, performed songs from the Holocaust following the Heymanns’ remembrances of Kristallnacht. Audience members sang along to a number of the songs.
Queensborough is in the process of creating a new 7,000−square−foot Holocaust center. Queensborough President Eduardo Marti said half of the glass at the new center will be cracked in commemoration of Kristallnacht.
“Through education, we can ensure that prejudice will not be left to flourish,” Marti said. “Soon we’ll have an institution that will stand as a beacon of civility. We will teach students about the need to speak out.”
Reach reporter Nathan Duke by e−mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 156.
