RVCC to Co-host Community-wide Kristallnacht Programs

Published by New Jersey Stage
10/02/2023

A scene from Etty: An Inspiring One-Woman Show with Susan Stein. Photo by Ricardo Barros

(BRANCHBURG, NJ) -- The Institute of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Raritan Valley Community College in Branchburg will present in-person and online programs in November commemorating Kristallnacht. The events are free of charge and open to the public. Registration is required.

Kristallnacht, also known as Night of the Broken Glass, is the name given to the violent attacks against the businesses, places of worship, and homes of Jews throughout Germany and in the annexed countries, including Austria and Sudetenland, on November 9 and 10, 1938. The violence was implemented by the Nazi leaders.

The community-wide Kristallnacht commemoration will begin with a performance of Etty: An Inspiring One-Woman Show with Susan Stein, Thursday, November 2, at 7:00pm, in RVCC’s Nash Theatre.

Etty Hillesum is a young Jewish Dutch woman writing diaries in Amsterdam during the Second World War. In these diaries, and later, in her letters from the Westerbork concentration camp, Etty bears witness to what it means to be human and commits herself to a radical choice: not to hate, even as she witnesses the horrors unfolding around her. She wrestles to write about the life she is living — her loves, her work, her humor, her spirituality, and her transformation.

This one-woman play, performed by actress/playwright, Susan Stein, and told in Etty’s own words, lets the audience share in her personal growth, just as the world around her is coming undone. The second act asks the audience to join the conversation with Susan Stein, fostering dialogue focusing on human rights, resistance, and personal responsibility.

To register for the in-person event, contact Michelle Edgar, Program Specialist, Institute of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, at [email protected].

Etty: An Inspiring One-Woman Show with Susan Stein will be repeated during a one-hour, online program on Friday, November 3, at 10:00am. To register for the virtual event, click here.

The Institute of Holocaust and Genocide Studies also will present A Young Boy, A Dark Time, Commemorating Kristallnacht with Holocaust Survivor Mark Schonwetter, Wednesday, November 8, at 10:00am. During the virtual event, Mark Schonwetter will offer a first-person account of his harrowing story of survival during the Holocaust. The program will include a remembrance of the violence against Jews in Germany and other places in Europe that occurred on November 9 and 10, 1938. As a child born in Poland in 1933, Schonwetter, his sister, and their mother survived in the ghetto, living in hiding, and they managed to make a beautiful life for themselves after the war.

To register for the virtual event with survivor Mark Schonwetter, click here.

The Kristallnacht programs are being co-sponsored by the Jewish Federation of West-Central New Jersey, with support from the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education and the JCC Holocaust Memorial and Education Center.

Raritan Valley Community College (RVCC) is located at 118 Lamington Road in Branchburg, New Jersey.