Publications & Sites 
Program recalls horrors of 1938's Kristallnacht
Updated: May 3, 2011 1:42PM
The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center will commemorate Kristallnacht Tuesday night for the second time since the facility opened in April 2009.
Kristallnacht or "Night of Broken Glass" marked a series of attacks against Jewish people throughout Germany and parts of Austria over two days on Nov. 9 and 10, 1938.
During the two days, Jewish homes, shops, towns and villages were ransacked. Civilians destroyed buildings with sledgehammers leaving pieces of smashed windows on the street.
Like last year, the museum will pay tribute to the courageous acts of the rescuers. A brief ceremony will take place at 6:30 p.m. at the Museum's Ferro Fountain of the Righteous.
The 72nd anniversary of the November Pogrom will be commemorated further at 7 p.m. with remarks from eyewitnesses and reflections on today's Germany inside the facility.
"We have chosen to mark the 71st anniversary of Kristallnacht on the concrete surrounded and blanketed by the Wall of the Righteous, the wall of hope, the wall of the best that humanity has to offer," said IHMEC Executive Director Rick Hirschhaut at last year's first ceremony.
"We want to mark Kristallnacht by looking at those and honoring those precious few who had the courage, the fortitude and the goodness to recognize right from wrong."
A full account of the Kristallnacht commemoration and a profile of the Holocaust's Museum's second president, Fritzie Fritzshall will appear on-line this week at www.pioneerlocal.com/skokie/index.html and in the Nov. 18 print edition.
The museum, located at 9603 Woods Drive, Skokie, is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
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