Holocaust survivor Charlotte Knobloch on a green screen set filming footage for a virtual reality project. (Claims Conference)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cThe streets in Munich are the same today as they were back then,\u201d she wrote in her email. \u201cThe places are charged, and nothing will ever change that for me. But the trust that I was able to regain after 1945 means that while streets are the same, the people can change \u2013 at least some of them. After many decades, this worked for me. Today, however, this trust is waning.\u201d<\/p>\n
WJC President Ronald Lauder called Hamas\u2019 attack \u201cthe most devastating since the Holocaust\u201d in a statement announcing a joint Kristallnacht commemoration with the Central Council of Jews in Germany and the Israelite Religious Society Austria.<\/p>\n
Their educational event will feature full-color digital reconstructions of destroyed synagogues in Germany and Austria, projected onto the walls of buildings where the synagogues once stood. In some locations, virtual reality goggles will enable a virtual tour. The digital reconstructions were developed together with the Technical University of Darmstadt and the University of Vienna.<\/p>\n
In former East Berlin, the Central Council commemorated Kristallnacht with Germany\u2019s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the synagogue Kahal Adass Jisroel, which recently was the target of an attempted arson. The structure had been damaged in 1938; it was renovated more than a decade ago with the support of the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, the Skoblo family in Berlin and the United Kingdom-based Maurice and Vivienne Wohl Philanthropic Foundation.<\/p>\n
At the event, Scholz called on Germans to actively oppose the exclusion and targeting of Jews. According to German media, he called the recent rise of antisemitic incidents \u201cshameful. It outrages and shames me deeply.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAny form of antisemitism poisons our society,\u201d he said. \u201cThat includes the Islamist demonstrations and rallies taking place these days,\u201d adding that asylum seekers and migrants who are found guilty of antisemitic crimes risk deportation.<\/p>\n
In Vienna, the Jewish Youth organization will hold a memorial march called \u201cLight of Hope.\u201d \u201cThe words \u2018Never again\u2019 hold a more pressing relevance than ever,\u201d Oskar Deutsch, chair of the Israelite Cultural Community of Vienna, said in a statement ahead of the events.<\/p>\n
The Israeli hostages in Gaza will be the focus of a Kristallnacht remembrance in Frankfurt, sponsored by the German-Israel Society (DIG). Titled \u201cNever again is now,\u201d the event also aims to \u201cshow the people of Israel that they are not alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
It also aims to support the Jews of Germany, said DIG President Volker Beck in an email. \u201cAfter the Hamas massacre on October 7 and the tsunami of antisemitism that followed worldwide, you can\u2019t help thinking: What, again?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFear is rampant in the Jewish community,\u201d added Beck, who is not Jewish. \u201cWe in Germany have to start from scratch to make our cities and villages safe for Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Berlin, in the early morning hours on Friday, a German Protestant Christian group called Light and Salt will hold a vigil for Israel, under the slogan \u201cyou are my people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have unfortunately noticed once again \u2013 85 years after Kristallnacht and since October 7th, 2023 \u2013 that antisemitism is more present than ever,\u201d wrote the group on its Facebook announcement.<\/p>\n
Joachim Bambach, a nurse by profession, started Light and Salt in 2017, after he heard people at a pro-Palestinian demonstration \u201cshouting \u2018Jews to the gas.\u2019 This was horrific for me, absolutely horrific. I could not stand this, and I knew I had to do something about it,\u201d he said in a telephone interview.<\/p>\n
So he started organizing prayer vigils outside the German chancellery in Berlin.<\/p>\n
The brutality of the Hamas attack should wake up the world, he told JTA. \u201cFor me, basically this is a battle of two world views,\u201d he said, \u201ca battle for the existence of the Jewish people in the land of Israel, and nothing else, and we have to face this, like it or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knobloch told JTA she feels safe in Germany and appreciates the support shown by the German government and general public. But she fears both are souring, as more Germans say \u201cyes, but\u2026\u201d and as the government\u2019s resolve weakens: In late October, Germany abstained rather than opposing (with the United States) a United Nations General Assembly resolution seeking an immediate \u201chumanitarian truce\u201d in Gaza.<\/p>\n
More than anything, she worries mostly about Germany\u2019s Jewish youth and about her own family.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy granddaughter, who lives in Israel, was here for a while after the attack with her two eight-year-old sons because the children could no longer stand the bunkers,\u201d Knobloch said. \u201cNow she has gone back, because she said it was too unsafe here, too. It\u2019s hard not to just give up. But I still hope that things will change for the better.\u201d<\/p>\n
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