Monday, November 10, 2014

Kristallnacht

Berlin has been in the news a lot recently as Germany celebrates the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. However, this weekend also marks a very different anniversary for Germany. It marks one of the darkest events in modern German history.

Kristallnacht, or Night of Broken Glass, refers to a series of coordinated attacks againt Jews in Natzi Germany and Austria. On the night of November 9, 1923, SA paramilitary, Hitler Youth, and German civilians attacked Jewish owned businesses, synagogues, community centers, and homes leaving unparalleled destruction in its wake. Instigated by the Nazi regime, rioters burned or destroyed 267 synagogues, vandalized or looted 7,500 Jewish businesses, and killed at least 91 Jewish people (taken from US Holocaust Memorial Museum online exhibit). This night is widely seen as the prelude to the Nazi annihilation of the Jews of Europe. The full article can be found here.

Sometimes I find it hard to put my thoughts down on paper. I can hear them rolling around in my head but I just can't seem to get them out. As this anniversary approached, I have thought about what it means to be Jewish. That Judaism isn't just a religion I practice, but it is at the core of who I am. I have thought about how lucky I am to have grown up in the United States where I can openly be a Jew. I sometimes forget that not everyone enjoys the same freedoms that I do. I take for granted going with my children to synagogue, or talking openly about my Jewish heritage. There are still too many places in the world where this isn't possible.

As strange as this may sound, it has also made me think about the recent elections, and how divided our country is right now. Hitler took the fears of the German people and gave them someone to blame. He told them that the Jews were the reason for all of their problems, and that the solution was easy, eliminate the Jews. Today our politicians, on both sides of the isle, stand up and blame each other for the problems we are facing. Sometimes I think we forget that there is more that unites us than divides us. We forget to respect each other. We must not let ourselves be led down the path of hatred and separation.

There are events such as these that change the face of history. Let this anniversary of Kristallnacht serve as a reminder not to let or differences overcome our humanity. I will leave you with two things. The first is a quote from Anne Frank, and the second are images from Kristallnacht.

"It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart."― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

The interior of the Fasanenstrasse Synagogue in Berlin after Kristallnacht
Destruction of the Dortmound synagogue, Kristallnact 1938


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