The Birmingham Holocaust Education Center will host a free educational program “Kristallnacht – What Did We Know? What Did We Do?” on Sunday, November 9 at 3 p.m. in partnership with the Homewood Public Library, 1721 Oxmoor Road.
The program featuring Alabama Holocaust Commission members Maury Shevin and Dr. Dan Puckett will explore what the Birmingham community knew about events in Nazi Germany in 1938 and how they responded.
Mr. Shevin, an attorney with Sirote & Permutt, will share recent discoveries from the Birmingham Public Library archives about what was in the local newspapers during and after the events of Kristallnacht – the “night of broken glass.” Kristallnacht refers to the state-sanctioned, anti-Jewish riots that occurred throughout Germany on November 9-10, 1938 in which Jewish synagogues, stores, community centers, and homes were plundered and destroyed.
Dr. Puckett, Associate Professor of History at Troy University, will share insights into how the Birmingham community responded to news reports from Europe. He will also discuss why so many Jewish immigrants came to settle in Birmingham and the issues they faced.
Following the program, Dr. Puckett will sign copies of his new book, In the Shadow of Hitler: Alabama’s Jews, the Second World War, and the Holocaust.
The program is free and open to the public.
