Each year the Center sponsors a community remembrance of the night of November 9-10, 1938, when Nazis mounted a series of attacks against Jews throughout Germany and parts of Austria. Thousands of Jewish homes were ransacked along with shops, towns and villages, as SA stormtroopers and civilians destroyed buildings with sledgehammers. They left the streets covered in pieces of smashed windows—the origin of the name “Night of Broken Glass.” Ninety-one Jews were killed, and 30,000 Jewish men—a quarter of all Jewish men in Germany—were taken to concentration camps. There, they were tortured for months, with over 1,000 of them dying. During that assault, 1,668 synagogues were ransacked, and 267 set on fire. In Vienna alone 95 synagogues or houses of prayer were destroyed.
This year the observance of Kristallnacht will feature local journalist Greg Dawson, author of Hiding in the Spotlight, which details his mother’s remarkable survival in the Holocaust. A child prodigy who escaped near-certain death, she played in concerts throughout Europe during the war, sometimes even playing for Nazi officials who were unaware of her Jewish identity.
The program will begin with a special screening of a new film Sharing the Spotlight. The documentary, created by filmmakers Susan Stauffer and Dan Beckmann of Verocity Creative Communications, describes how investigating that story has had a lasting impact on Greg and his wife Candy, and particularly on their daughter Aimee. As Greg’s mother Zhanna’s story unfolded, they had to come to terms with the incredible suffering that comes from prejudice and intolerance.
The film will be followed by a conversation with the Dawson family. Zhanna, now a retired pianist living in Atlanta, and Aimee, now living and working in Chicago, will join Greg and Candy in discussing the impact of their shared experiences. The program is open to the public free of charge. For information call 407-628-0555.
