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All of a sudden, the sky above Berlin was blood-red
Reading and music

„On the morning of November 9, the pale Berlin winter sky was all of a sudden blood red. Awakened in the morning in my Grunewald apartment by the seemingly unbelievable news that the inconspicuous private synagogue in the neighborhood was on fire and guarded by an idle police and fire department, I hurried out. The old policeman at the driveway, well known to me, told me quietly, with reluctance in his voice, in response to my question, ‚We’re just watching out for the fire department here.‘ I knew enough.“

This is how the lawyer, Dr. Ernst Marcus, describes the morning after the Reich Pogrom Night on November 9, 1938. On the very same day, he unsuccessfully tries to stop the violence through his political connections. Instead, a few days later, he himself is arrested by the Gestapo and interned as a Jew in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He manages to obtain a release and flees to what was then Palestine, where he survives the war.

84 years later, his granddaughter Hannah Marcus reads from his report, which is preserved at the Yad Vashem International Holocaust Memorial in Israel. Prof. Dr. María do Mar Castro Varela (Alice Salomon Hochschule Berlin) adds historical context to his first-hand accounts. Moderated by Dr. Massimo Perinelli, they will then talk about the meaning of memory policies in today’s Germany, among other topics.

The event will be musically accompanied by Netta Shahar, composer and vocal artist (to be confirmed).

Free admission