Address commemorating the 87th anniversary of the November pogroms

On Sunday, November 9, 2025, a memorial service and reflection on the future of the victims of the November Pogroms was held at the Dresden-Neustadt Synagogue. The event, a collaboration between Herz statt Hetze e.V. (Heart Instead of Hate), the Jewish Community of Dresden, Besht Yeshiva Dresden, the State Association of Jewish Communities and Institutions in Saxony, and with the support of the Neustadt District Council of the City of Dresden, was attended by approximately 210 people. André Lang delivered the following moving speech.

Dear attendees, dear friends,

Actually, one could say that everything has already been said about this day – the anniversary of Kristallnacht, which began in Dresden in 1938, 87 years ago. And yet, year after year, we must commemorate, remember, and warn.

Today we remember all the victims of Nazi terror: the Jews, the Sinti and Roma, the Communists, the Social Democrats, the trade unionists, the homosexuals, the disabled, and also the upright Christians who resisted. We will never forget you and your suffering! But we must not and will not forget the perpetrators either – those responsible and their willing accomplices. We must also remember the majority of those Germans who stood idly by while the Jews were persecuted.

I speak to you today as a Jewish anti-fascist, a member of the Jewish community, and a co-initiator of the "Heart Instead of Hate" initiative and the Friends of the Old Leipzig Train Station. Through my family's fate during the Nazi era, I, too, am among those affected. My mother, her parents, and siblings, Hungarian Jews who had lived in Berlin since the beginning of the 20th century, were able to flee into exile before 1938—thanks in part to their Hungarian passports. My father also managed to escape to Manchester after being released from prison, which he had served for his resistance against the Nazis as a young communist.

Our uncles, aunts, and cousins ​​who remained in Hungary suffered a horrific fate. After the German invasion in March 1944, nearly half a million Hungarian Jews were deported to extermination camps and murdered there within just 54 days. Members of our family were murdered in the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps.

Our mother's uncles, aunts, and cousins ​​who remained in Hungary suffered a terrible fate. My parents—my mother being the only survivor of her Jewish family—returned to East Germany with my sister and me after liberation by the Allies to help build a new, better Germany. All the other family survivors, my grandparents, aunts, and uncles, remained in exile, convinced that there would never be another, better Germany. My aunt Thea, who served in the British Army during the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, emigrated to the USA with her husband, an American bomber pilot, after the horrific experiences she endured there.

My mother often recounted stories from her time in exile in England well into old age. There, she was a member of the Free German Youth (FDP), which—contrary to what was written in the GDR—was not founded in 1946 in the Soviet occupation zone (SBZ), but rather in 1939 in England by emigrants.

My father led a study group there dedicated to the study of scientific socialism. The first book he gave my mother was "Woman and Socialism" by August Bebel. Many in this group were young Jewish refugees. Among them were those who had been part of the so-called Kindertransports—children who were able to leave Germany at the last minute in 1939, but without their parents. It's hard to imagine what happened at the Berlin train stations back then, how parents and children said their heartfelt goodbyes to each other, children who would never see their parents and grandparents again.

At the gatherings of the young emigrants, they not only discussed politics, but also laughed, sang, danced, and performed plays. In one of these plays, my mother played an emigrant child who had just arrived in England and was writing a letter home. I would like to read you this poem today, which she could still recite by heart until she was 88 years old and which she always presented as a witness to history at schools in Dresden and Hoyerswerda. A poem that, as she said, was part of her life story:

Yesterday I arrived in Manchester,

the people were very kind.

I always thanked them politely,

and at ten o'clock I went to bed.

I lay as stiff as a board,

everything inside me felt so thin.

Stockings and a petticoat hung on the chair,

left over from Berlin.

Here you're allowed to walk on the grass

— even if you're Jewish.

The lady says: Come, child, play and run.

I sat down very still,

rested my head in my hands,

and thought of Berlin.

Karl, the doorman's son, said goodbye to me back then.

"Take care, girl, until I see you again"

— he really dared to say that.

I know what the boy dreams of;

my father calls it a whim.

On the day when the Nazi nightmare is over,

I so long to be there,

even though I'm Jewish.

When Karl and the others liberate the city

— that will be my Berlin.

Were Karl and the others really the ones who liberated Berlin? No!It was not the Berliners who liberated their city, but the Allies.

And today?Is this really my Berlin again? – My Dresden? – My homeland?

Have my parents' dreams come true?I would say: Yes and no. 

Yes, fascism was defeated. Jews actively participated in the fight against it – whether Aunt Thea in the British Army, Jewish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, or Stefan Heym in the US Army. Jews who served in the Red Army also helped liberate the Germans from fascism.

Can Is that why we stop remembering today?No, as long as antisemitism, racism, and misanthropy are on the rise again in our country, our task remains: to remember, to warn, and to act. And if I also speak today on behalf of my deceased parents, then I would like to share their answer to the question,whether their hopes were fulfilled, illustrated with two current newspaper headlines.

In the Sächsische Zeitung, November 8, 2025 It was on page 1:

"Antisemitism must be fought. On November 9, 1938, hatred of Jews erupted in a pogrom night. Today, antisemitism is on the rise again in Germany. We must not allow this." 

and onPage 10 of the same newspaperRegarding Susanne Dagen, member of the AfD faction, which is, it should be noted, the strongest faction in the Dresden city council:

"Reading with right-wingers – Susanne Dagen was once Dresden's most important bookseller. Then she became politically active. Today, with a right-wing book fair in Halle an der Saale, she has reached her goal." 

This book fair – hard to believe, I know – is taking place today, November 9th. It's simply unbelievable!!! It's a good thing my parents didn't have to experience that.

I ask you: Why don't all democratic factions of the Dresden City Council and the Saxon State Parliament jointly advocate for a AfD ban?! What more has to happen before a party classified as definitely right-wing extremist by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is banned? Do we really want to allow the Nazis to come to power again through our parliaments? We already went through all this in 1933!

That makes me wonder:Is Dresden, is Saxony, is Germany – still my country?Is this the right country for me and my family? And if not, where should we go?

Back to England, where just recently two Jews were murdered in front of the synagogue in my birthplace, Manchester?

Or to the USA, where my aunt Thea's family lives, and where today politicians like Trump and Musk want to abolish democratic values?

Or to Israel, which since its founding in 1948 has repeatedly had to defend itself against its Arab neighbors, especially Hezbollah from Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza or the Iranian terror regime?

Please note:I am not an Israeli citizen. If I were, I would never have voted for Netanyahu. I would be among the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who take to the streets every week to demand freedom and democracy in their country.Clearly:The bombing of the Gaza Strip, which killed 40,000 people, including innocent children and civilians, is causingnone of theProblems.But: On October 7, 2023, Hamas murdered and abducted 1,300 young people, children, women, and elderly people. And that, too, is myvery personalOpinion: Anyone who supports chants like "Free Palestine - from the river to the sea" today aligns themselves with those who question Israel's right to exist. This is Israel-related antisemitism, and I reject it!

The Palestinians, like the Israelis, have a right to their own state – therefore, we should work together for the two-state solution! And alsoThis is part of the truth:Besides the Middle East, there are many people in Africa, South America, and the Mediterranean for whom we should and must show active solidarity. Among us today are my friends Amrei, Dörte, Barbara, and Rita, who have been involved with [organization name] for years.Mission Sealife to advocate for refugees, regardless of their nationality, ethnic origin or religion.This is solidarity in action - thank you all for that!

And yes, I am convinced that if necessary, they would protect me and my family from these resurgent anti-Semites, right-wing extremists, and racists.That's why I'm staying here with my family.- because you exist, all of you who are here tonight, and because it's worth fighting together.

Thank you very much!Thank you for listening to me for so long – I simply had to say that today. You don't have to agree with everything I said, but I hope we agree on the essential points.