Kristallnacht survivor meets descendants of Australian protester

A Melbourne performance will honour Indigenous elder and activist William Cooper, who was one of the first to protest the persecution of Jews, when many around the world remained silent.

Kristallnacht survivor Henri Korn (right) and Indigenous activist William Cooper (left). Source: SBS News

Eighty years ago, Nazi leaders unleashed a series of pogroms against the Jewish population in Germany in what became known as Kristallnacht, the beginning of the Holocaust. 

On the other side of the world, one Australian man responded.

Aboriginal elder William Cooper, then aged 78, marched across Melbourne to lodge a protest at the German consulate.

It was the only protest of its kind in the world.

Aboriginal activist William Cooper's grandson Alfred Turner (left) meets Kristallnacht survivor Henri Korn. Source: SBS News

On Friday Kristallnacht survivor Henri Korn met with descendants of William Cooper, and he was overwhelmed with gratitude.

"[It's] just incredible how people who are persecuted recognise other peoples being persecuted. This was wonderful," he told SBS News.

Mr Korn was only a child at the time of Kristallnacht, but he remembers those two nights of horror vividly.

"I saw seven dead bodies... one of [them was the] little friend I played with," he said.

“[His] father tried to stop the brown shirt… they tried to stop them and they grabbed him. They lived on the fourth floor of a block of flats.

"They threw him out. His wife followed and little Leo went after them [and he was] thrown out the window and killed."

NIGHT OF THE BROKEN GLASS: A number of terror attacks were made on Jewish synagogues and stores. This photograph shows a devastated synagogue. Source: AAP

Mr Korn and Mr Turner joined preparations for a multi-media commemoration of Kristallnacht's 80th anniversary at the Australian Catholic University on Sunday. 

The violence began on November 9 in 1938, when Nazis torched synagogues, vandalised Jewish homes and killed close to 100 Jews in Germany. 

Up to 30,000 Jewish men were taken to concentration camps.

Meanwhile in Australia, Mr Cooper, a Yorta Yorta man, led a delegation to the steps of the German Consulate in Melbourne to condemn the violence.

It took years before his actions were recognised.

William Cooper (right) condemned the prosecution of Jews when many around the world fell silent. Source: SBS News

"I think he was thinking that helping the Jews would help his own people as well because they needed help at that time," William Cooper's grandson Alfred Turner said.

"I think that the story needs to be told and it's gone too long."