Annual Margot Jeremias Memorial Kristallnacht Commemoration Lecture
The Margot Jeremias Memorial Kristallnacht Commemoration Lecture is an annual lecture planned to coincide with Kristallnacht (November 9-10) dedicated to perpetuating the memory of the Holocaust in general and the events of Kristallnacht in particular. This annual lecture is dedicated in loving memory of Margot Jeremias by her family, Helen & Les Loew.
Margot Jeremias was only 12 years old on that infamous November night. Kristallnacht, for her, represented the moments that would irrevocably alter the course of her life. Born in 1926, Margot Jeremias survived the Holocaust, came to America and raised two daughters, seven grandchildren, and 18 great-grandchildren. She devoted her life to telling her story as a Holocaust survivor and teaching the next generation about peace, tolerance, and standing up in the face of evil.
To access our lecture archive or listen to a past lecture, click here.
More About Margot's Life
On November 9-10, 1938, Kristallnacht, her father was arrested and imprisoned in Dachau for 5 weeks along with the adult Jewish males of Hoffenheim. On October 22, 1940, Margot (age 14) and her parents were deported to the Gurs internment camp in Vichy, France. She lived in a children’s camp for six months, then transferred to Rivesaltes on April 20, 1941 before she was taken to a French Jewish scouts camp (Eclaireurs Israelites Francais). Her parents were sent to Drancy (near Paris) in August 1942 and then deported to Auschwitz where they were likely murdered on arrival.
With the help of the French Underground (and two women code-named Sultane and Chevre-Feuille) Margot was sheltered for a year at Riscle convent using a false identity and then worked as a maid for a non-Jewish family (Malan) in Brives until the war ended. After the liberation of France (in fall 1944), Margot returned to a children’s home in Moissac operated by the OSE, where she spent two years before finally managing to reunite with her sister in New York City. Margot married a German Jew (Martin Jeremias) who had served in the intelligence service with the U.S. Army in WWII. They raised their family in New York City, two daughters, seven grandchildren, 18 great grandchildren (and counting) and as Margot says, “all from little old me.”
Watch Margot tell her story below.
Friends Would Not Speak to Me
Fear Never Left Me
Deported to Internment Camps
Going into Hiding
Placed in a Convent
What Happened to My Parents
Archive
- 5785/2024- The Holocaust & Today: The Use of Holocaust Analogies to the Present Day- Dr. Rivka Press Schwartz
- 5783/2022- Children During the Shoah, A Personal Odyssey- Dr. Leon Chameides
- 5782/2021 - Our Obligation to Remember- Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter
- 5781/2020 - Conversation with Dr. Efraim Zuroff, Renowned Nazi Hunter
- 5780/2019 - Dr. Avinoam Patt on The Future Tense of Zakhor: Remembering the Holocaust in the 21st Century
Listen To A Recording (click here) | View Powerpoint (click here)
- 5779/2018 - Rabbi Brahm Weinberg on From Monuments to Memory: The Responsibility of Holocaust Remembrance in our Time
Listen To A Recording (click here) | View Powerpoint (click here)