The text below is the speech delivered by World ORT Archivist and Records Manager Jennifer Brunton at the Association of Jewish Refugees’ Kristallnacht Commemoration in London on 11 November 2025.
“Esteemed survivors and refugees, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. Speaking on behalf of World ORT, I am honoured to be a part of the AJR’s Kristallnacht commemoration as we bring to a close ORT’s 145th year.
Held within the ORT archive, there is a letter dated 11 May 1939 from a Jewish man named Rolf Schloss, who is living in Holland.
Writing to ORT France, Rolf asks the organisation to help his father, who has been imprisoned in Germany and has become extremely unwell.
Rolf writes: “My father has been told that he will probably only be released when he emigrates, or at least when he can show proof of definite plans to emigrate.
“My mother is also living under dire constraints… when her flat was plundered in November 1938, she was robbed of the last of her wealth.”
Unfortunately, we don’t know what happened to Rolf’s father but, thanks to the meticulous research conducted by The Wiener Holocaust Library, we believe that Rolf survived and later moved to Israel. Sadly, his mother is thought to have been murdered at Chelmno.
We also know, that the ORT school in Berlin survived because the building and its equipment had been registered under British ORT. This offered students some protection.
But, before we talk more about ORT’s role in supporting Jewish refugees and survivors, it might be helpful to understand ORT’s founding story.
Translated as ‘The Society for Trades and Agricultural Work’, ORT was founded in Russia in 1880 to help Jews escape poverty, by teaching them a trade.
Russian Jewry was asked to contribute to a fund, tosupport vocational schools for Jews, and to open new ones. It was also asked to help the Jewish farming communities and agricultural schools. Within two months, people had donated the equivalent of what would now be more than £5 million today, and they continued donating into the early 1900s.
ORT expanded into specialised courses to give its students professional skills and access to the most prestigious and in-demand professions – something we still do to this day.
During and after the First World War, ORT saved thousands from starvation and unemployment. With the rise of Nazism in Germany, Jewish communities were thrown into turmoil.
ORT supported Jewish physicians, lawyers and clerks, all of whom were unemployed because of restrictive laws. ORT became known as a ‘Passport to Life’ as its trainees in ghettos received extra food rations and were selected for labour. In many cases, this meant the difference between life and death.
There are many other examples of ORT’s work during this period. It was present in the Kovno and Vilna Ghettos; there were trade schools in Romania, despite the harsh wartime conditions, lack of funds, increasing anti-Jewish legislation and pogroms. ORT worked in France, and it soon became a nucleus for German Jews. Further afield, ORT’s work in Shanghai began in 1941, when Jewish refugees arrived from Europe.
By July 1938, more than 200 boys aged between 14 and 17 from all over northern Germany were studying at the Berlin ORT school. However, Kristallnacht was the catalyst for mass Jewish emigration from Germany and Austria.
The then Acting Chairman of British ORT, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Henry Levey, and the Berlin school’s headmaster, Dr Werner Simon, decided to relocate the school, and its 215 pupils to the UK. The first group of 106 boys, along with eight of their teachers, made it out of Berlin just three days before the outbreak of the Second World War.
These ‘Old Boys’, as they affectionately became known, arrived in Harwich on 29 August 1939. They worked in the Kitchener Camp before later moving to their new school, which was located in Leeds.
Tragically, the second group of boys was deported first to Theresienstadt, along with Dr Simon, or straight to Auschwitz.
This episode connects us to one of the most complex chapters in the cultural history of the Holocaust. The Nazis exploited Theresienstadt for propaganda and it became a centre of remarkable musical activity. But, as we know, the musical flourishing was designed to deceive the world about the camp’s true nature.
ORT’s website, Music and the Holocaust, shares the story of the broader musical landscape in Nazi-occupied Europe. It also reveals how the regime systematically targeted Jewish musicians and composers, as well as the very fabric of European musical culture. The website also discusses how music became a means of resistance and survival in camps and ghettos, and later in the Displaced Persons camps.
ORT also operates the Art and the Holocaust website, which catalogues the Shoah’s artistic legacy. It provides a database of artists who were murdered or survived, as well as those who documented camp experiences through their work. Art created in camps, ghettos and hiding places shows the persistence of creative expression, even in the most extreme of circumstances.
By the end of the Second World War, ORT supported students in 16 countries. It trained tens of thousands of survivors and displaced persons from Jewish communities throughout Europe, even conducting courses in places such as Bergen-Belsen.
ORT has not only endured tragedies but has emerged stronger and more resilient. By carefully assessing the needs of our students and educators, we have continually developed our institutions, programmes and staff to meet new demands and opportunities.
The movement of Jewish refugees led to the development of new ORT programmes beyond Europe, mainly in South America. The organisation also took care of “forgotten” Jewish communities in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Ethiopia and Iran.
In 1960, the US Agency for International Development asked ORT to undertake technical training programmes in Africa. We then began a new phase of humanitarian activities outside the international Jewish community while expanding our work in France, Latin America, North Africa, the Middle East and India.
ORT has also learned how to emerge into new worlds: for example, in Russia and the former Soviet Union after the fall of Communism; in postwar Israel, when waves of immigrants arrived from Europe and the Middle East; and, more recently, the Covid pandemic and adapting to online learning, along with the Ukraine war and the aftermath of the October 7 atrocities in Israel.
Throughout it all, ORT has been there to provide a practical safety net for people, but not only that. As we’ll hear from our next speaker, Monica Lowenberg, whose father Ernst was a pupil at the Berlin ORT school and, later, one of the Leeds Old Boys, the school also gave its students a support network and a sense of belonging.
We know that the AJR is considered a family and, similarly, our educators speak of the ORT family – a network that spans continents and provides assistance, a sounding board and a connection to a community with shared values.
ORT’s mission is Impact Through Education. Our vision is to educate young people – and to nurture and invest in their educators – to give them the skills and knowledge to succeed in the workplace. We provide our young people with possibilities they might not otherwise have had, especially in the field of STEM – science, technology, engineering and maths.
We are proud to serve 84,000 students in 47 schools, universities and vocational training programmes in more than 40 countries. These students – Jewish and non-Jewish, secular and religious – live in countries including Ukraine, Russia, Israel, France, Kyrgyzstan, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil and Singapore.
We run three summer schools, offering students hands on-training and experience in digital media production, ecology and STEM, as well as other programmes and awards.
Our students work together, often across borders, to solve problems. Recent projects have included the design of a smart glove and walking stick for visually-impaired people alongside a project to preserve the memory of the Holocaust.
But our students don’t just learn academic subjects. ORT is a global education network driven by Jewish values. We aim to strengthen and revive Jewish identity, especially in communities that have been disconnected from their heritage.
We are proud to have responded to the catastrophe of Kristallnacht and of Nazi oppression in general. We saved lives and empowered people, setting students on a path to a new life, just as ORT has done since 1880, and as it still does today.
Thank you.”