Kristallnacht Commemorative Lecture

Each year, Wright State commemorates Kristallnacht, known as the "Night of Broken Glass.” In November 1938, thousands of Jewish homes and businesses throughout Germany were ransacked, hundreds of synagogues were burned, and dozens were killed by Nazi storm troopers. Additionally, 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and deported to concentration camps. Kristallnacht is generally considered to be the start of the Holocaust, resulting in the murder of 6 million European Jews. Wright State’s annual program is co-sponsored by the Dayton Holocaust Resource Center, the Frydman Educational Resource Center, and the Zusman Chair in Judaic Studies and is coordinated by Mark Verman, Ph.D., associate professor.

Past Lectures

• 2018: Mr. Samuel Heider, Holocaust survivor
• 2017: Mr. Samuel Heider, Holocaust survivor
• 2016: Mr. Samuel Heider, Holocaust survivor
• 2015: Mr. Samuel Heider, Holocaust survivor
• 2014: Dr. Ashley Fernandes, “Medicine, the Holocaust, and Religious Ethics.”
• 2013: Renate Frydman, “My Mother, the Nazi Midwife and Me.”
• 2012: Robert Kahn, “The Collapse of Moral Judgment in Nazi Germany.”
• 2011: Sandra Schulberg, Columbia University, “The 1945 Nuremberg Trials,” a  film by Stuart Schulberg.
• 2010: Dr. Mark Verman, Wright State University, “A Brief History of  Kristallnacht, Based Upon New Research.”
• 2009: Dr. Miriamne Krummel, University of Dayton, “Anti-Semitism: A Literary  Analysis.”
• 2008: Renate Frydman, the region’s premier Holocaust educator;  Ursula Duba, a German-American poetess, Prof. Henry Kasha,  retired physicist from Yale University; Reflections on their  Holocaust Experience in Poetry and Prose.
• 2007: Dr. Mark Verman, Wright State University, “Genocide: Raphael Lemkin and Fellow Crusaders”
• 2006: Dr. Felix Garfunkel, Ira Segalewitz and Felix Weil, “Important Lessons to be Learned from the Holocaust.”
• 2005: Gustav Goldberger, Esq., “Denmark and the Holocaust”
• 2004: Rabbi Jacob Jungreis, Yeshiva Ateres Yisroel, “A Survivor’s Reflections.”
• 2003: Peter Wells, Dayton Jewish Federation," Shattered Dreams: Picking up the Pieces."
• 2002: Renate Frydman, Holocaust Resource Center; Prof. Tom Martin, Sinclair Community College, “Remembering  Kristallnacht.”