Commemorating Kristallnacht: Cold Crematorium – Rabbi Greg Weisman in Conversation with Alex Bruner

When veteran journalist, poet, and novelist József Debreczeni arrived in Auschwitz, he was “lucky” to be sent to a life of slave labor rather than directly to the gas chambers. He survived and after the war wrote Cold Crematorium, which one reviewer called “the harshest, most merciless indictment of Nazism ever written.” First published in Hungarian in 1950 and never translated due to McCarthyism, Cold War hostilities, and antisemitism, Cold Crematorium is now available in English, thanks in part to the author’s nephew, Temple Beth El member Alex Bruner.

As we mark the anniversary of Kristallnacht, Alex, a child of Holocaust survivors, will be in conversation with Rabbi Greg to discuss the historical and family context for his uncle’s deportation to Auschwitz and describe the author’s hellish journey through multiple slave labor camps. He will share pictures, documents, as well as audio recordings from the book.

Join us to learn why Alex’s uncle wrote the book, how it was initially received, the reasons it was not translated into a world language until now, and the lessons one can draw from the work.

Refreshments to follow.

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This event in presented thanks to the generosity of Temple Beth El’s Friends of Music and the Arts.