\u201cIn the morning, I went to the window. The entire street was covered with stars and crystals. It was beautiful, but I didn\u2019t know what it really was,\u201d Lawrence resident Susan Gelfand said, recalling her early life growing up in Berlin. \u201cIt was the day when everybody came and broke the windows of homes and stores.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the Nov. 1 Kristallnacht Commemoration at City Hall, Gelfand, now 96, spoke about her life as an eight-year-old living through the \u201cNight of Broken Glass\u201d in her grandmother\u2019s Berlin home. Gelfand had fled Szczecin, Poland with her mother and brother, after her father was taken prisoner.<\/p>\n
More than 250 attendees filled the 6th floor meeting room to take part in the annual ceremony, presented by The Holocaust Committee of Long Island. During Kristallnacht \u2014 a coordinated series of attacks across Nazi Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland in Nov. 1938 \u2014 Nazi soldiers vandalized and looted Jewish-owned businesses and homes, and burned more than 1,400 synagogues.<\/p>\n
Every year since 1987, Long Beach has hosted a remembrance ceremony, with the installation of Kennedy Plaza\u2019s Holocaust memorial monument in the inaugural year. Every ceremony has featured a keynote speaker. Last year, Warren Vegh<\/a>, spoke. Vegh\u2019s late father, Maurice, was a taken to Auschwitz at age 13 and was later marched to Buchenwald before being liberated.<\/p>\n This year, Alexa Roth was the featured speaker. Roth, 18, is a Stony Brook University freshman representing an upcoming generation of young adults deeply connected to their Jewish faith, through her work as president of her local CTeen chapter and travel for international Shabbatons. \u201cTo other young Jewish people who may be struggling to understand their identity or find the confidence to speak up, I want them to know they are not alone,\u201d Roth said. \u201cWe come from generations of people who survived unimaginable hardships and still found ways to rebuild their lives, families and communities. We carry their stories with us and we have a responsibility to keep those stories alive.\u201d<\/p>\n