Kristallnacht anniversary resonates with Pittsburgh’s Jewish community,

Eighty years ago this week, Nazis and their collaborators killed dozens of Jews and destroyed Jewish businesses, homes and temples in what came to be known as Kristallnacht, or the night of broken glass.

Two weeks ago, a gunman allegedly fueled by hatred of Jews killed 11 worshippers and injured six others at a Squirrel Hill synagogue.

The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh was already planning to commemorate Kristallnacht — which in 1938 marked a major escalation in Nazi violence against Jews in Germany, Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia — when the massacre deemed the worst anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history occurred Oct. 27 at Tree of Life synagogue. That commemoration — a performance of “The Children of Willesden Lane,” the true story of a young Jewish girl separated from her parents at the start of World War II — will go on as planned.

“I’m definitely seeing this as an opportunity for the community to come together again, a little removed from the events [of Oct. 27] and perform an important act of remembrance,” said Lauren Bairnsfather, director of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh.

“The Children of Willesden Lane,” performed by Mona Golabek, is the story of Ms. Golabek’s mother, Lisa Jura, who wanted to become a concert pianist while growing up in Vienna. But when the war started, Lisa was brought to England as part of the Kindertransport, a mission that rescued nearly 10,000 children threatened by the Nazis.

The show is based on the book by the same name, written by Ms. Golabek, a Grammy-nominated American concert pianist, author and radio host, and Lee Cohen. The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh partnered with Classrooms Without Borders to bring the show to the city.

The free performance will take place at 7 p.m. Monday at the Byham Theater on Sixth Street in Downtown.

Just as the show must go on, the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh will continue its mission in the wake of the massacre.

“It doesn’t change the Holocaust Center,” Ms. Bairnsfather said. “It was the most stark example of what we try to do every day, which is make the Holocaust relevant and try to talk about how it relates to now.”

What does change, she said, is the content of the message that the center tries to convey to the community.

The center had been dedicated to remembering Holocaust victims, survivors and their stories. In addition to that message, the center will now work to educate students and the broader community about antiSemitism, hate speech and individual responsibility.

Ms. Bairnsfather spoke to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Wednesday morning at the center in Greenfield shortly after she returned from speaking to 1,200 students at an assembly at Franklin Regional High Schoolin Murrysville.

“We’re seeing there’s not enough knowledge about anti-Semitism and where it comes from,” she said. “There’s not enough knowledge about the way that Jews contributed to the building of this country, and I feel that we have a responsibility to share that content as well.”

Lynne Ravas, 62, of Collier tells the story of her father, Fred Rosenbaum, a Kristallnacht survivor, as part of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh’s “Generations Speaker Series.”

She said the message she shares with her audience won’t change, but the context she puts it in will.

“The way I preface that story changed last week when I spoke to the first group to visit the Holocaust Center since the murders in Squirrel Hill, and that was to discuss with those high school students a little bit the concept of us versus them,” Ms. Ravas said. “I think I’ve changed a little bit in saying that we have to look at how we view each other, and we have to stop looking at the differences and start looking at what we have in common.”

“The Children of Willesden Lane,” in partnership with Classrooms Without Borders, will be performed at 7 p.m. Monday at the Byham Theater on Sixth Street, Downtown. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is strongly recommended. More information and registration can be found at https://hcofpgh.org/kristallnacht-2018/. Lyft is offering a 30 percent discount for rides to and from the performance; use the code 1112PITTSBURGH at this address: https://www.lyft.com/invite/