80 Years Progrom Night

Berlin, 11.11.2018 – Concert at the commemoration ceremony on 11 November 2018 at 17:00 with the commemoration of the dead EL MALE RACHAMIM with the cantor Isaac Sheffer and the Synagogal Ensemble Berlin as well as the youth choir of the synagogue Pestalozzistraße at the site of the former synagogue Freiheit 8 in Berlin-Köpenick in the presence of the district mayor Igel.

On November 9, 1938, as part of the National Socialist November pogroms, the then only 28-year-old Köpenick Synagogue, designed by the Rixdorf architect Adolf Sommerfeld, was devastated, plundered and set on fire by the SA. With the support of the Louis Lewandowski Festival, the Treptow-Köpenick district is commemorating this tragic event as part of the Jewish Cultural Days Berlin 2018.

The synagogue in Köpenick was one of 15 Jewish places of worship that were destroyed in Berlin alone during the pogrom night, which the National Socialists called “Reichskristallnacht” (Crystal Night of the Reich).

According to official figures, 30,000 Jews were deported to concentration camps during the acts of violence, and 90 people died – recent research, however, assumes that several hundred people actually died. The heavily damaged synagogue in Köpenick was further destroyed by bombs in World War II and had to be completely demolished in 1945. “According to Cornelia Flader, District Councillor for Culture, “A commemorative plaque commemorates the synagogue and its history today. The location of the former synagogue reminds the living and supports the memory of the dead”.

It was an absolutely moving event, as the specially closed off street at the blackboard where the synagogue used to stand was populated with Berliners from Köpenick. Not everyone could be admitted to the concert hall because it was overcrowded.