FORT MYERS — Florida SouthWestern State College’s Dr. Talbot Spivak Holocaust Memorial Committee will host its 2026 Kristallnacht Memorial Observance on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026, at the FSW Lee Campus. The daylong observance will feature a virtual reality experience, presentations, primary source exploration, and a legal studies discussion examining Kristallnacht, also known as the “Night of Broken Glass,” and its significance in Holocaust history.

The observance is free and open to students, faculty, staff, members of the media, and the community.

History: Kristallnacht occurred on Nov. 9 and 10, 1938, across Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. During the Nazi-led pogrom, more than 1,400 synagogues were burned, thousands of Jewish-owned businesses were vandalized, Jewish homes were attacked, religious objects were desecrated, and Jewish individuals were humiliated, assaulted, and killed. In the aftermath, approximately 26,000 Jewish men were imprisoned in concentration camps. The event marked a major escalation in Nazi persecution and is widely recognized as a turning point in the path toward the Holocaust.

2026 Kristallnacht Memorial Schedule

9:00–11:00 a.m.
Inside Kristallnacht: A Virtual Reality Experience
Presenter: Dr. Gary Girod
Location: G-219

FSW’s Dr. Talbot Spivak Holocaust Memorial Committee and the Institute of Innovative and Emerging Technologies will host Inside Kristallnacht: A Virtual Reality Experience. Designed by The Claims Conference, USC Shoah Foundation, Meta, makemepulse, and UNESCO, the VR program allows participants to experience history through the memories of Holocaust survivor Dr. Charlotte Knobloch. Dr. Gary Girod will moderate the experience and lead discussions on how modern technology can help preserve and retell history.

1:30–2:30 p.m.

This presentation will provide historical context for Kristallnacht and examine its role as a defining moment in the escalation of Nazi violence and persecution against Jewish communities.

4:30–5:30 p.m.
Kristallnacht Through Primary Sources
Presenter: Emmaline Blikstad
Location: U-102

This presentation will explore Kristallnacht through reproductions of historical primary sources, including letters, personal testimonies, photographs, and newspaper articles. Attendees will consider the impact of the November Pogrom of 1938 on Jewish individuals, families, businesses, synagogues, and communities under Nazi rule.

7:30–8:30 p.m.

The Legal Studies Club and Debate will lead an in-depth exploration of the history leading up to Kristallnacht and how the event marked the beginning of the Nazis’ legalization of hate. The presentation will examine how antisemitism, propaganda, and state power converged to enable violence, persecution, and the erosion of rights.

In addition to the day’s presentations, the Dr. Talbot Spivak Holocaust Memorial Committee invites attendees to visit a Holocaust remembrance book display on the second floor of the J Building, Rush Library, on the Lee Campus. The display highlights the history and human stories behind the Holocaust.

The mission of the Dr. Talbot Spivak Holocaust Memorial programming at FSW is to educate students and the community about the Holocaust, honor its victims and survivors, cultivate tolerance, and promote awareness of modern-day genocide in support of the world’s promise of “Never Again.”

The Holocaust, also called the Shoah, was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews between 1933 and 1945 by the Nazi regime in Germany. The Nazis also systematically persecuted and murdered millions of others, including Roma, people of Slavic descent, religious and political dissidents, homosexual Germans, and Germans with mental and physical disabilities.

For more information, visit: https://www.fsw.edu/holocaust