The Kristallnacht is commemorated on 6 November in the synagogue in Groningen. At the center of this is the 97-year-old Albrecht Weinberg.
He lives in the East Frisian town of Leer and survived the holocaust. “Normally, the main guest gives a lecture, but given his advanced age and limited eyesight, things are different now,” says Geert Volders, director of the synagogue. He will be interviewed by Peter Groenewold, former lecturer in Germany Studies at the University of Groningen.
Nov 9, 1938
Weinberg was born in a village near Leer and consciously experienced the Kristallnacht in the night of 9 to 10 November 1938. In it, synagogues and other Jewish properties were destroyed throughout Germany and Jews were also attacked. In Leer the synagogue was also lost, by fire.
Weinberg was deported to the extermination camp in Auschwitz during World War II, then ended up in Bergen-Belsen and was liberated there in 1945. After the war he emigrated to New York and returned to Leer in 2011. “He has been in our synagogue more than once since then, but he has never been central to our Kristallnacht lecture and commemoration,” Volders said.
Silent march
This commemoration begins with a silent journey from Harmonieplein to the synagogue on Folkingestraat. Reservations are required to attend the meeting in the synagogue itself.