T
his year, we commemorate the events
which unfolded 80 years ago on the night
of 9th November 1938, when Germany’s
Nazi regime unleashed pre-planned terror
on the Jewish population of Germany and Austria.
More than 1,400 synagogues and thousands of
Jewish-owned businesses and homes were destroyed.
The sound of smashed glass during this orgy of
terror and destruction resonated in the name given
to the events of that night and the following days:
Kristallnacht – Night of the Broken Glass.
Only a few days later, the British government
decided to grant refuge to Jewish children from
Germany and Austria, and later from (German)
occupied Czechoslovakia.
This enabled the rescue of approximately
10,000 children, who came to Britain between
December 1938 and September 1939 by the
so-called Kindertransport.
Finchleystraße shows works by Jewish artists who
had to flee Germany during the Third Reich – some
of them on the Kindertransport – and whose lives
6 Finchleystraße
were traumatically uprooted due to Nazi persecution.
The exhibition not only honours these artists, but
commemorates the thousands of children who were
separated from their families by the Nazis – and their
heartbroken parents, most of whom were murdered
during the Holocaust.
The 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht serves
as a reminder of our responsibility to uphold the
principles that over the past seven decades have
become fundamental for the Federal Republic of
Germany: democracy, respect of human rights and
fundamental freedoms, and the continuous battle
against Anti-Semitism.
The exhibition allows us to show our gratitude for
the lives and creativity saved by coming to Britain –
including on the Kindertransport – 80 years ago.
We thank Ben Uri Gallery and their chairman
David Glasser for the wonderful cooperation that has
made this exhibition possible.
Tania Freiin von Uslar-Gleichen, Chargé d’Affaires
a. i. of the German Embassy London