94-Year-Old Survivor Returns to Berlin for Kristallnacht Anniversary
George Shefi, who was six during the 1938 pogroms, visited his childhood neighborhood to discuss the history with German police officers and students.
By Giulia Donovan ·
Kristallnacht, the coordinated attack on Jewish communities across Germany and Austria, took place on Nov. 9, 1938. Eighty-eight years later, survivors are returning to the sites of those attacks to recount their experiences before the generation of witnesses disappears.
According to Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, at least 91 people died during the pogroms. Roughly 7,500 Jewish businesses were vandalized, and more than 1,400 synagogues were targeted by arsonists.
George Shefi was six years old when his mother, Marie Spiegelglas, kept him home from school for three days. When he finally emerged into the streets of Berlin’s Schoeneberg district, his Jewish school inside a local synagogue had been burned down. The Jewish hat store opposite his home had been looted, and the windows of the stationery shop next door were smashed.
Shefi recalled the scene during a recent visit to his childhood home. He described the Jewish shop owner attempting to clean up while a crowd of 30 to 50 people jeered and yelled. The shop owner, who was trying to recover, faced the mockery of the onlookers.
Shefi, now 94 and a resident of Jerusalem, returned to Germany as one of the last living witnesses to the events. He spoke to groups of students and police officers about the need to understand the history to prevent future persecution. He noted that while he once held a grudge against Germans, he now believes younger generations are responsible for learning the past to shape their future.
For Shefi, the night marked the end of his sheltered childhood. In July 1939, at age seven, his mother placed him on a Kindertransport to England with 300 other Jewish children. He never saw her again. She was deported to Auschwitz and murdered in 1943. Shefi lived with several foster families in London and survived the German bombing of the city during World War II.
He later moved to the United States before settling in Israel, where he raised a family, ran a tool shop, and served as a volunteer police officer. He now shares his story to ensure the events of 1938 are not forgotten.
During his visit, Shefi met with police officers in Berlin. He joined Jochen Kopelke, the chairman of the German Police Union, who has prioritized educating officers about Jewish life in Germany. Kopelke told The Associated Press that many officers in Germany lack knowledge about the Jewish community.
Kopelke stated that police officers protect synagogues but must also understand contemporary Jewish life and the role of the police during the Third Reich. He noted that police in the Nazi era actively participated in the Shoah, guarded concentration camps, and deported people. He argued that bringing officers into the real world is necessary in addition to historical study.
Phyllis Greenberg Heideman, president of the International March of the Living, said Holocaust education is essential to combating rising antisemitism. The group organizes an annual remembrance event at Auschwitz. She described the fight against antisemitism as a daunting but necessary act for everyone.
Shefi said his generation is the last that can tell what happened without facing doubts about the truth. He continues to speak about his childhood in Nazi Germany to keep the memory alive.
The German government prepared to mark the 88th anniversary of the anti-Jewish pogroms on Monday. The events serve as a reminder of the escalation that preceded the systematic mass murder of six million European Jews.
