Kristallnacht 75th Anniversary Interfaith Commemoration
Tuesday November 12, 2013 at 7:00 pm
Capital District Premiere- One Time Showing - Free of Charge
“As a Young Girl of Thirteen: Simone Lagrange Remembers Auschwitz”
At Page Hall, University at Albany downtown campus 135 Western Ave Albany NY
Audio File
Shelly Z. Shapiro, Holocaust Survivors and Friends Education Center, The Rosner Holocaust Center at The Golub Center, describes the event.
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Seventy five years ago, on November 9-10, 1938, the Nazis staged vicious attacks or pogroms against Jews in Germany and Austria in riots that came to be known as Kristallnacht or “Night of Broken Glass”. Known as the night the Holocaust began, the date is a turning point in history and a warning for today. Hundreds of synagogues and businesses were destroyed and 30,000 Jewish men and boys were arrested and sent to concentration camps. This is the twenty first anniversary of the Kristallnacht Interfaith Confronting Bigotry Commemoration of the Capital Region sponsored to unite the community against prejudice. The film examines an unsung hero of the Holocaust and is called fascinating, emotional, astonishing and powerful.
“As a Young Girl of Thirteen” is the inspiring documentary about
Holocaust survivor Simone Lagrange who never let her spirit be broken.
Simone Lagrange recounts in vivid detail her life before the war, her deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and her role in bringing a Nazi war criminal to justice with her message of resistance, survival and hope.
As a schoolgirl, she threw an inkwell at a teacher who singled out the Jews in her classroom after their identity cards were marked with a “J”. “That was my first act of resistance”, Simone said. She and her family were turned in for their resistance efforts by a young girl her family had rescued. Simone was tortured by Klaus Barbie and deported to Auschwitz. She testifies against Klaus Barbie, refusing to allow her testimony to be challenged stating that, Barbie questioned her 42 years earlier and won’t ever question her again. When asked how she could remember him, she said “ At 13, you remember the look in people’s eyes.”
This film is an engaging portrait of a woman who shares her message of resistance and hope with young people. She says that the true value of the trial was in telling the story of what happened to her and others during the Holocaust.
“It came from far away. It had to be said.
In a way, I may be privileged compared to all those who couldn’t speak.”
The Program is sponsored by Holocaust Survivors & Friends Education Center, the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York and the Judaic Studies Program of the University at Albany. Corporate sponsor is Hickcock & Barclay.
The Kristallnacht Commemoration features Holocaust survivors and members of the interfaith community representing faith groups of the capital region including Hedi McKinley, survivor of Kristallnacht who was living in Vienna, Austria in 1938; Ivan Vamos, Holocaust survivor; Susan Nixon, of the Capital Area Council of Churches; Karol Harlow, Baha’i community; Genghis Khan, Schenectady County Human Rights Commission & Imam at the Schenectady County Correctional Facility, Kathleen Duff, Commission of Ecumenical and Interreligous Affairs Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany; Rajalakshim Bala, Hindu Representative; Dr. Paul Uppal, Executive Secretary of Guru Nanak Darbar, the Sikh Temple of Niskayuna; Laura Roth, Director, KTC Buddhist Center; Robert Freer, Latham, Community Baptist Church, Rabbi Paul Silton, Chair, Holocaust Survivors & Friends Education Center; Cantor Rogerio Marx, Temple Israel; former Congressman Michael McNulty of Hiscock & Barclay, Dr. Barry Trachtenberg, Director, Judaic Studies Program of the University at Albany; Shelly Shapiro, Director,Holocaust Survivors & Friends Education Center .
