The Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara will host A Visual Poetic Journey & Commemoration of Kristallnacht, including tributes to local Holocaust survivors and poetry read by award-winning poet Carine Topal, 5-7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 6, at the Bronfman Family Jewish Community Center, 524 Chapala St.

The event is free to attend.

The night of Nov. 9, 1938, rampaging mobs throughout Germany and the newly acquired territories of Austria and Sudetenland freely attacked Jews in the street, in their homes and at their places of work and worship.

At least 96 Jews were killed and hundreds more injured, more than 1,000 synagogues were burned (possibly as many as 2,000), almost 7,500 Jewish businesses were destroyed, cemeteries and schools were vandalized, and 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

Many historians consider Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass), the first public display of widespread violence against the Jewish community in Germany, to mark the start of the Holocaust and the devastation to come.

“As the decades move forward from the events of Kristallnacht and the dark chapter of the Holocaust, it becomes even more crucial to gather together as a community to remember and to face our past,” said Ruth Steinberg, Jewish Family Service director and Holocaust educator.

“In our current times in which hate seems to again be on the rise, we must honor our survivors by looking into ourselves and determining a hopeful future,” she said. “Through the art of the spoken word, through tears, and through the joy of hope, we will remember and reach for a better tomorrow.”

Topal is an award-winning poet and author of such works as Tattooed, poetry in the voices of the perpetrators, the victims, and the survivors at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp; and In Order of Disappearance, a meditation on life and death, suffering, great beauty, and ultimately redemption.

For more about the event, visit jewishsantabarbara.org/community-calendar. For more about the Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara, visit: www.jewishsantabarbara.org or call 805-957-1115.

— Briana Tivey for Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara.