Annual General Meeting of the Vancouver Holocaust Society for Education & Remembrance
Wednesday, October 20, 2021
7:00 pm
Location and accessibility details TBA
Business:
- Adoption of the minutes of the 2020 AGM
- Adoption of the 2020–21 Annual Report
- Receive and consider the financial statements of the Society
- Appointment of the chartered accountants
Everyone welcome to attend. Must be a member in good standing to vote.
Kristallnacht Commemoration
Thursday, November 4, 2021
7:00 pm
Location and accessibility details TBA
Keynote speaker: Judy Batalion
Kristallnacht, the state-sponsored pogrom known as the Night of Broken Glass, took place on the night of November 9–10, 1938. Hundreds of synagogues were burned, Jewish-owned businesses were destroyed, nearly 100 Jews were killed and 30,000 were sent to concentration camps. Kristallnacht was a critical turning point in Nazi Germany’s persecution of Jews, which culminated in the Holocaust, the attempt to annihilate European Jews during World War II. 2021 marks the 83rd anniversary of Kristallnacht.
Judy Batalion is the granddaughter of Polish Holocaust survivors and the author of The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos. She was born and raised in Montreal, and speaks English, French, Yiddish and Hebrew.
Judy Batalion will speak about The Light of Days, a spectacular, searing history that brings to light the extraordinary accomplishments of brave Jewish women who became resistance fighters—a group of unknown heroes whose exploits have never been chronicled in full, until now. Powerful and inspiring, The Light of Days is an unforgettable true tale of war, the fight for freedom, exceptional bravery, female friendship, and survival in the face of staggering odds.
Everyone welcome.
Presented by the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre in partnership with Beth Israel Congregation.
This program is funded through our community’s generous contributions to the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver Annual Campaign. Supported by the Robert and Marilyn Krell Endowment Fund of the VHEC.
DATE AND TIME TO BE ANNOUNCED:
Rediscovering History: Collecting & Researching the Jewish Garment Industries of Germany & Austria
A presentation by Claus Jahnke, Fashion Historian and Collector
Vancouver-based fashion historian and collector Claus Jahnke is the owner of one of the most significant collections of German and Austrian historical clothing outside of Europe. Pieces from his collection have been exhibited in Vancouver, Toronto, New York and Vienna. Jahnke began collecting as a young man, often finding treasures at auctions and in thrift stores, or, in exceptional cases, from the descendants of emigrants in North America. In the 1990s, Jahnke discovered a pair of shoes at the Salvation Army in New Westminster. Manufactured by Gallus Shoes in Göttingen, Germany—a factory belonging to the Hahn family—the shoes are intrinsically linked to the VHEC’s current exhibition, Treasured Belongings: The Hahn Family & the Search for a Stolen Legacy.
Claus Jahnke regularly consults for historians and other researchers. In 1999, he acted as co-curator for the VHEC-produced exhibition Broken Threads: The Destruction of Jewish Fashion Industry in Germany and Austria, which examined the methodical destruction of Jewish involvement in the European fashion industry in the 1930s and 1940s.
