Drew University Reexamines Kristallnacht

Madison, N.J. – Through documentary film and personal recollections, the Center for Holocaust/Genocide Study will reexamine the brutality of Kristallnacht in Nazi Germany.

The film is The Night of Broken Glass, a 2008 documentary about how on Nov. 9, 1938 Nazis burned hundreds of synagogues, destroyed thousands of businesses and killed more than 90 Jews. Amid the violence, more than 26,000 Jewish men were sent to concentration camps, one year before the outbreak of World War II.

The recollections will come from a witness: Erwin Ganz, who was 9 when the devastation occurred. Ganz, who fled Germany for America and is now retired, will answer questions after the 50-minute documentary is screened.

The Center’s program will take place Nov. 15 in room 28 of Drew’s Learning Center, which is under Rose Memorial Library. The start time is 4 p.m.

The event is free and open to the community. Also, by attending, educators can earn two professional development credits. For more information, click here, call 973-408- 3600 or email ctrholstu@drew.edu.

Center for Holocaust/Genocide Study

Founded in 1992 through a grant from the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education, the Center for Holocaust/Genocide Study offers a variety of events, including an annual November conference in memory of Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) and an annual commemoration of Yom HaShoah (Day of Remembrance). The Center also offers films, lectures, performances, workshops and commemorations of the Holocaust and other genocides, such as those in Armenia, Bosnia, Cambodia, Darfur and Rwanda. The Center enriches Drew’s undergraduate and graduate courses by bringing notable scholars and speakers to campus, organizing visits to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and providing additional resources that enhance the study of Holocaust and genocide. It also supports faculty research by, for example, commissioning an English translation of a German text dealing with Nazi slave labor camps. All events are open to the larger community.

Drew University

Drew University, a Phi Beta Kappa liberal arts university, includes the College of Liberal Arts, Drew Theological School and Caspersen School of Graduate Studies. Drew is located on a beautiful, wooded, 186-acre campus in Madison, New Jersey, a thriving small town close to New York City. It has a total enrollment of more than 2,000 students and has 145 full-time faculty members, 94% of whom hold the terminal degree in their field. The Theological and Caspersen schools offer MA and PhD degrees and the College confers BA degrees in 30 disciplines.

Drew is dedicated to exceptional faculty mentorship, a commitment to connecting the campus with the community and a focus on experiential learning. Particularly noteworthy opportunities for undergraduates include the the Charles A. Dana Research Institute for Scientists Emeriti (RISE), home of 2015 Nobel Prize Winner for Medicine and Drew Fellow William Campbell, the Drew Summer Science Institute, the Center for Civic Engagement, as well as the Wall Street Semester, Semester at the United Nations, Semester on Contemporary Art and Semester on Communications and Media in New York City and several international semester programs. The University also houses the Center for Civic Engagement, the Drew Summer Science Institute, the Center on Religion, Culture & Conflict, the Center for Holocaust/Genocide Study and The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, an independent professional theater, as well as the United Methodist Archives and History Center and one of the country’s leading concentrations of materials on Willa Cather.