Tomorrow, when we set the table for Christmas Eve dinner, we will put a traditional plate for a lost wanderer.

Let us keep in mind that on the same Christmas Eve evening, in the forests at the Polish-Belarussian border, there wander people who need warmth, food and shelter, who need our help.

Do not be indifferent! Save people on the border! Let the good win!

Stanisław Barańczak’s poem “Never really” and Marek Edelman’s statements were read by Maria and Jan Peszek.

Outdoor Light and Sound Projection: The Virtual Reconstruction of the Siegen Synagogue

Projected in Siegen (Germany) on the exterior wall of the Bunker on November 9, 2021. The Siegen synagogue stood on this property from 1904 until 1939/40.

Presented by the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation Siegerland e.V. within the framework of the anniversary year „1700 Years of Jewish Life in Germany“.

May our love and memory overcome destruction and death.

The Open Republic was among the signatories of an open letter against the Russian prosecutors’ decision to disband the international association “Memorial”. The letter, calling “Memorial” a global treasure, emphasizes its fundamental role in uncovering the truth about the mass murder of Polish officers in Katyn during the Second World War and other mass communist repressions. The letter also calls the “Memorial”, the conscience of contemporary Russia, and describes attempts to disband it as an act of political aggression.

The Open Republic has made two official reports concerning the events in the city of Kalisz on 11 November 2021. On that day, Wojciech Olszanski and Piotr Rybak exhorted the participants of an Independence Day rally in Market Square to commit a crime, espoused fascism and ethnic hatred. The Open Republic addressed one of the reports of a suspected crime to the local prosecutor’s office, and the other – considering the gravity of the matter – to the office of the Prosecutor General.

The International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism is marked on November 9 to commemorate the victims of Nazism and nationalist, racist and antisemitic terror.

On November 9, 1938, a series of Jewish pogroms, called Kristallnacht, was organized and carried out by the Nazis. Kristallnacht pogroms became the Third Reich’s first act of mass violence against Jews. On that day, the Nazis killed over 90 people, and according to other sources, up to 2,000 people. Between 3,500 and 30,000 Jews were seized and sent to concentration camps. From 300 to 1,500 synagogues were set on fire, while thousands of Jewish shops had their windows smashed, which gave rise to the name “Kristallnacht” or “Crystal Night.”

“Democracy is not about listening to everything that comes to somebody’s head”, said the Open Republic’s Paula Sawicka in a TVN24 television channel programme. She was commenting on the parliamentary debate on anti-LGBT legislation proposed by  Krzysztof Grzegorz Kaprzak on behalf of a “Life and Family” foundation. Another guest of the programme, an LGBT activist Bart Staszewski said: “It was horrible for me, and for any LGBT person, that they are all paedophiles, and that having been born gay, I am not better than the Nazis.”

“I disagree that democracy makes it our duty to hear ideas; Mr Kasprzak was kind enough to present. Everything he said was a lie and hate speech”, added Paula Sawicka. The parliamentary majority did not reject the proposed legislation in the first reading. The project was sent for further deliberations in a parliamentary committee.

To commemorate the ,Reichspogromnacht‘ (the Night of Broken Glass), multimedia artist Gabriela von Seltmann and her international team virtually resurrect the Siegen synagogue. In an animated video and sound installation, the synagogue, which burned down on November 10, 1938, rises from the rubble and appears on the outer wall of the Hochbunker (Aktives Museum Südwestfalen) in its previous form. Thus, the center of the Siegerland Jewish community, inaugurated in 1904, returns to the collective memory of the city. Historical and contemporary recordings of synagogal chants accompany the two- and three-dimensional animation.

The premiere of the first virtual reconstruction of a synagogue in Germany is intended to recall, on a representative basis, the more than 1400 synagogues and prayer houses that were destroyed during the so-called Reichskristallnacht in November 1938. This unique event intends to evoke a variety of emotions and possibly memories in viewers, both those on-site and those worldwide watching via live broadcast on the Internet. For some viewers, the event will be their first-ever encounter with Jewish culture and Judaism.

This open-air program will also include the showing of the virtual reconstruction of the Great Synagogue of Warsaw, which premiered in Warsaw in 2018. This Great Synagogue reconstructions serves as a cross-border symbol of how death and destruction can be overcome through memory, reconciliation, and love.

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