Jena commemorates the November 1938 pogroms
The Mayor's speech to commemorate the November 1938 pogroms:
"Dear fellow citizens,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Welcome to today's ceremony to commemorate the victims of the November pogroms of 1938, now 87 years ago. It is good to see so many people gathered here again today to send a signal against anti-Semitism then and now.
I would especially like to welcome Mr. Milan Andics, Cantor of the Jewish Community of Thuringia, to our commemoration today. You will sing "El Male Rachamim" in memory of the Jews who were killed. Thank you very much for being here today. It is once again a special honor!
I would also like to extend a warm welcome to the members of Jena's Jewish community who are with us today. You are especially welcome! (not known if anyone or how many are here)
I warmly welcome the members of the Jena Working Group on Judaism and their spokesman, Mr. Sebastian Neuß. Thank you very much for once again preparing today's event together with the city.
Today's commemorative speech will be given by Pastor Julia Brabant from Erfurt. I am very pleased about this, you are very welcome!
Our event will once again be accompanied by flute music conducted by Ilga Herzog. As in previous years, our commemoration will be framed by joint music-making and singing by the "Klang der Stolpersteine" (Sound of the Stumbling Stones) campaign under the direction of Klaus Wegener.
As in previous years, the "Sound of the Stumbling Stones" has invited people to commemorate the victims of National Socialism in Jena with a large number of small concerts, this time at 68 locations throughout the city! With music and candlelight, the commemoration shines throughout the city, in the residential areas where Jewish fellow citizens lived until they were expelled and many were even killed.
Dear musicians, this form of commemoration is always very touching. Thank you for your commitment!
Ladies and gentlemen,
A very warm welcome to you all!
The November pogroms symbolize the beginning of the physical, systematically planned extermination of the Jewish people during the National Socialist era.
What happened back then should not and must not be forgotten; no one should trivialize or even deny it. Under no circumstances should anything of this kind ever be repeated, neither here nor anywhere else.
But let's be honest: anti-Semitism did not cease to exist after the crimes of the National Socialists. And after the terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7 two years ago and the subsequent war in the Gaza Strip, a wave of anti-Semitism is rolling over Germany in a way that most of us could never have imagined before.
The report by the Research and Information Center on Anti-Semitism Thuringia documented an increase of around 33% in anti-Semitic incidents in Thuringia in 2024, rising from 297 to 392 reported incidents.
The increase is particularly strong in left-wing and academic milieus, especially in Jena. If we say that the injustices committed against Jews 87 years ago must not be repeated, then we must act now. Anti-Semitism begins long before there are physical attacks on people of the Jewish faith. Anti-Semitism begins verbally or covertly. We must all be vigilant, show civil courage and intervene.
Jews are once again the target of attacks and face attacks on their dignity. We who are here today show that we are many and that we stand up for our fellow Jews.
Thank you for being here. Once again, you are most welcome! Gabi Rönnefarth from the Jenaer Arbeitskreis Judentum will now read us a poem.
It is important that we talk to Jews and listen to them. Because from a distance, hardly any of us can really understand what it means to be a Holocaust survivor or a descendant of Holocaust survivors, what it means to have lost family members in the gas chambers, what it is like to be afraid to show in public, on the bus or in the lecture hall or on the street that you are Jewish or to read a Hebrew daily newspaper.
Prof. Reinhard Schramm, chairman of the Jewish community, wrote to me three or four weeks ago that for many Jews, the Stolpersteine are often the only place to remember their dead. That is what makes this work of memorial art so special in Germany. There are usually no graves. The Israeli flag stood for the survival of the Jewish people after the November pogroms of 1938 and after the Holocaust. It also stands for the survival of the Jewish people after October 7, 2023.
The flag stands for a new beginning with the founding of the State of Israel, which is to be a safe home for Jews. It is not a justification for current Israeli policy and is not a position on the behavior of the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. It is not a trivialization of the suffering that the Palestinian population is currently experiencing.
That is how I read the Israeli flags that can be seen here today.
I am aware of the irritation that the flags cause some people here. But I think that we have to endure this in the spirit of the Jewish people who are remembering their loved ones. Criticism of Israeli policy must not be allowed to distract from or relativize the murder of millions of Jewish people
Jewish people are few among us, as Prof. Schramm also pointed out. The fact that they are so few is not their fault. That is why German society must not abandon the Jews and we must not abandon our Jewish neighbors again.
The sound of the Stolpersteine has brought the memory of murdered and expelled Jews in Jena more into the city's consciousness than many other campaigns. Because the Sound of the Stumbling Stones now exists at 68 locations and hundreds of people are making music there in memory of the Jewish victims, there are so many of us here today. We must be this many and many more if we want to effectively counter the growing anti-Semitism in our society.
Thank you for being here. Once again, you are most welcome!"
Gedenken an die Novemberpogrome 1938 - Die Rede des Oberbürgermeisters
© Stadt Jena
An 68 Orten Jenas erinnern Stolpersteine an die ermordeten Jüdinnen und Juden.
© Stadt Jena