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Foreword: Tania Freiin von Uslar-Gleichen, Chargé d’Affaires a. i. of the German Embassy, London
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This 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 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.
