Archival Component
In this interview, the participants discuss their experiences during Kristallnacht, and the commemoration events in southern Nevada with Holocaust survivors and their families. Mr. Kuechel recounts his journey through concentration camps and being liberated by the Russians. Rabbi Goodman talks about meeting Mr. Meinecke, whose grandfather was a high-ranking SS officer. Meinecke discusses his upbringing in Germany and trying to learn about his family's involvement in the Holocaust, and the hope he felt after the fall of the Berlin Wall as Jews returned to Germany. The group discusses the importance of Holocaust education because there are still so many untold stories.
On November 9th to November 10th, 1938, in an incident known as Kristallnacht, Nazis in Germany torched synagogues, vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses, and killed close to one hundred Jews. In the aftermath of Kristallnacht, also called the Night of Broken Glass, some thirty thousand Jewish men were arrested and sent to Nazi concentration camps. German Jews had been subjected to repressive policies since 1933 when Nazi Party leader Adolph Hitler became chancellor of Germany. However, prior to Kristallnacht these Nazi policies had been primarily nonviolent. However, after Kristallnacht conditions for German Jews grew increasingly worse. During World War II, Hitler and the Nazis implemented their so-called final solution to what they referred to as "the Jewish problem" and carried out the systematic murder of some six million European Jews in what is now commonly known as the Holocaust.
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Facade of the Horseshoe parking garage. Stamped on original: "Las Vegas New Bureau - Las Vegas, Nevada. Convention Center - Photographers - Don English. Jerry Abbott. Joe Buck. Milt Palmer. John Cook."
Site Name: Horseshoe Club
Address: 128 East Fremont Street
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Horse sale on Fremont Street at night, showing the neon of the Mint, Horseshoe, and Hotel Fremont, all of which make up part of Glitter Gulch. Stamped on original: "Allen Photographers, Inc. Post Office Box 4253 Las Vegas, Nevada 89106."
Site Name: Fremont Street
Address: Fremont street, Las Vegas, NV
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Night view of the Horseshoe Hotel and Casino. Stamped on original: "Jay Florian Mitchell. Photographer. 614 So. 6th DU 4-5148 Las Vegas, Nevada. Douglass Studio, Inc. 614 South Sixth. Dudley 4-5148. Las Vegas, Nevada."
Site Name: Horseshoe Club
Address: 128 East Fremont Street
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A photograph of Teddy Jane and Benny Binion standing in front of their house, Las Vegas, Nevada in August of 1943.
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Teddy Jane Binion (right) stands with an unidentified woman (left) in a garden.
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Two unidentified women and a man (that could possibly be Binion's family members) stand in front of their cars on a ranch.
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Benny Binion seated at poker table with his hands folded and facing camera. The photograph being taken during Horseshoe World Series of Poker circa 1980.
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Benny Binion (left) stands with his actor friend Chill Wills (right). The pair are outdoors and wear similar fur-lined coats and cowboy hats.
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