Kennesaw State and The Temple Collaborate to Honor Holocaust Victims and Survivors

The Temple in Atlanta and the Kennesaw State University College of the Arts will host "A Kristallnacht Commemoration: Honoring the Victims and Survivors of the Holocaust" on Nov. 5 at The Temple.

The event is a concert of works related to the Holocaust, including the world premiere of Fugitive Footsteps, a Holocaust memorial composition written by Kennesaw State Composer-in-Residence Dr. Laurence Sherr. He has dedicated this work to his mother, Alice Bacharach Sherr, a Holocaust survivor who moved to Atlanta after the war.

Fugitive Footsteps is a setting of poetry by Nelly Sachs, a Jewish poet who was awarded the 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature.
"I chose this particular Sachs' poem because it so strongly portrays the experiences of Holocaust survivors like Sachs and my mother," Dr. Sherr said. "It also speaks to the plights of the survivors of all tragedies."

"A Kristallnacht Commemoration" features performances by guest baritone Daniel Gale, the Cantor at Temple Beth Israel in Bay City, Mich., and the KSU Chamber Singers who sang to sold-out crowds with Barry Manilow earlier this year at the Fox. The Temple's Rabbi Alvin M. Sugarman and KSU Arts Dean Joseph Meeks also will present special addresses.

The commemoration takes place just four days before the 64th anniversary of Kristallnacht or "The Night of the Broken Glass" when Nazi storm troopers and their sympathizers wrecked Jewish homes and businesses, brutalized Jewish women and children and murdered many Jewish people throughout Germany, Austria and other Nazi-occupied areas of Europe. According to SS sources, 7,500 businesses were destroyed, 267 synagogues were burned and 91 were people killed. In a two-day period, about 25,000 Jewish men were sent to concentration camps.

"The horror that the victims of the Holocaust endured should never be forgotten," Rabbi Sugarman said. "One of the most profound traits of being a human is our ability to remember. When we remember innocent victims we make their memory sacred, because hopefully their lives should provoke us to stop the brutal violence that still endures."

The commemoration takes place at 8 p.m. on Nov. 5 at The Temple, 1589 Peachtree St. N.E. in Atlanta. It is free and open to the public. For more information, call 770-423-6650.