Rememberance of Pogrom coincided with children’s parade Bonn resident finds St Martin event inappropriate
Bad Godesberg · School children are walking the streets with lanterns on the night of November 9 - according to one resident an inappropriate event. That day marks the anniversary of the Pogrom Night in 1938.
Children are walking the streets, holding lanterns, while the victims of the Pogrom Night of 1938 are remembered. One resident finds this difficult to understand: For him it is an exceptional impiety on the day, on which burning synagogues and humans who were hunted through the streets get remembered, to let pupils walk through the streets with lanterns, candles and torches singing songs.
He particularly named the St Martin’s parade of the Paul Klee school on Thursday. He said he is a descendant of relatives who were tortured to to death in German concentration camps and who were robbed of their identity, their home and their possessions on November 9, 1938 in violent assaults. He wrote to the head of the school district, Hubert Zelmanski and demanded changes for next year.
„The St Martin’s parades are organised by the schools in cooperation with the district councils“, a spokesperson for the school district said. In general, a parallel order of events should be considered.
„If this is not possible, the school district can advise primary schools to keep in mind the remembrance events when scheduling the parades in the future.“ There was no one reachable for comment in the Paul Klee school on Friday afternoon. Original text: Richard Bongartz Translation: Mareike Graepel
