Be'eri 6:56

Kibbutz Be’eri was founded on 6 October 1946. Many residents of the kibbutz were active in peace initiatives, and humanitarian aid for Palestinians in the nearby Gaza Strip was organised both privately and in groups. At the time of the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023, around 1,200 people were living in Be’eri. The attack took the people by surprise. The evening before, the 77th anniversary of the kibbutz’s founding had been celebrated: people had been dancing, singing and sitting together with their families and neighbours.

In the early hours of 7 October, sirens sounded; shortly afterwards, at 6.56 am, the first Hamas terrorist broke into the kibbutz – one of more than 100 men who, over the course of several hours that day, brutally murdered, raped, maimed and burned people, including children, teenagers and even babies. Help did not arrive until several hours later. For many people, any rescue came too late. More than 125 people were brutally murdered, and 32 were taken hostage and abducted to Gaza.

The exhibition ‘Be’eri 6:56’ was created and curated by the German-Israeli Society e.V., Würzburg branch.

The photographs on display were taken in November 2023. They document the extent of the violence in the kibbutzim of Be’eri, Re’im and Nir Oz. However, when selecting the images, a conscious decision was made not to include particularly disturbing photographs.

Nevertheless, the photographs – albeit in a restrained manner – bear witness to the massacres perpetrated on that day by Hamas terrorists. They bear witness to an inconceivably brutal Saturday morning on 7 October 2023 at 6.56 am.

In parallel with the exhibition at Neukölln Town Hall, the German-Israeli Society, Würzburg Branch, is presenting the more comprehensive exhibition ‘Israel 733:02:35’ on the massacre of 7 October 2023 at the Paul Löbe House of the German Bundestag.

District Mayor Martin Hikel: “The terrorist attack by Hamas on 7 October 2023 marks a turning point. In Israel, because on no other day since the end of the Shoah have so many Jewish men and women been murdered. And at the same time in Neukölln, Germany and worldwide, because the atrocities committed by Hamas and the unspeakable terror of that day are being trivialised and ideologised. With this exhibition, we aim to achieve two things: we want to commemorate the victims of the barbarity of 7 October 2023. And we want to send a clear message from the Town Hall against hatred, against anti-Semitism and against violence. I invite everyone to join us.”

Admission is free.