Holocaust survivor returns to Berlin home where he witnessed Kristallnacht at age 6

George Shefi, a 94-year-old Holocaust survivor from Jerusalem, returned to his childhood home in Berlin 88 years after Kristallnacht to share his memories as one of the last living witnesses. At age 6 in 1938, he witnessed the aftermath of the pogrom. He now speaks to German police and school groups about the Holocaust to combat rising antisemitism.

George Shefi, a 94-year-old Holocaust survivor from Jerusalem, returned to his childhood home in Berlin's Schoeneberg district 88 years after Kristallnacht to share his memories as one of the last living witnesses. At age 6 on November 9, 1938, his mother kept him home for three days; when he emerged, his Jewish school inside a Berlin synagogue had been burned, the hat store opposite looted, and the stationery shop windows smashed, with a crowd jeering at the Jewish owner. Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, saw at least 91 Jews killed, 7,500 businesses vandalized, and over 1,400 synagogues targeted by arsonists, according to Yad Vashem. Shefi was sent on a Kindertransport to England in July 1939; his mother, Marie Spiegelglas, was deported to Auschwitz and murdered in 1943. He later lived in the US and Israel, where he raised a family and ran a tool shop. Shefi now speaks to German police and school groups, emphasizing that his generation is the last that can tell the story firsthand. He joined Jochen Kopelke, chairman of the German Police Union, who stressed that police must understand Jewish life and the police's role during the Nazi era. Phyllis Greenberg Heideman of the International March of the Living called Holocaust education essential to combating rising antisemitism.