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November 10, 2008
It Came From Within
Seventy years ago, on November 9, 1938, Nazis looted and burned synagogues as well as Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria in what became known as "Kristallnacht."
The term "Kristallnacht" ('Night of Broken Glass") refers to the organized anti-Jewish riots in Germany and Austria, November 9-10, 1938. These riots marked a major transition in Nazi policy, and were, in many ways, a harbinger of the "Final Solution."
Seventeen year old Herschel Grynszpan was living in Paris in the autumn of 1938 when his family in Hannover - father, mother, sister and brother - were among ten thousand Jews ruthlessly removed from their homes and deported to Poland in boxcars. His sister Berta managed to send a postcard to Herschel in Paris, describing the torments his family went through. Enraged by what he read, Herschel bought a pistol and went to the German Embassy in Paris on November 7, 1938, to take revenge and kill the ambassador, Count von Welczek. But the Third Secretary, Ernst vom Rath, was sent out to see what the young man wanted and Herschel shot him.
Herschel Grynszpan was arrested and in a poignant statement taken immediately after the arrest the young Jew told the police: "Being a Jew is not a crime. I am not a dog. I have a right to live and the Jewish people have a right to exist on this earth. Wherever I have been I have been chased like an animal." He declared that he had to avenge the Jews, to draw the attention of the world to what was happening in Germany.
For Adolf Hitler, the shooting in Paris provided an opportunity to incite Germans to "rise in bloody vengeance against the Jews." It supplied the pretext for massive Nazi pogroms launched against Jews in Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland - the orgy of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. The tide of anti-Semitism under Nazi rule was given impetus: in the next 24 hours Nazi storm troopers along with members of the SS and Hitler Youth beat and murdered Jews, broke into and wrecked Jewish homes, brutalized Jewish women and children, destroyed 265 synagogues, looted 7,500 Jewish businesses, smashed Jewish cemeteries, hospitals and schools. At least 96 Jews were killed and hundreds more injured, more than 1,000 synagogues were burned (and possibly as many as 2,000), almost 7,500 Jewish businesses were destroyed, cemeteries and schools were vandalized, and 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps.
The official German position on these events, was that they were spontaneous outbursts. The Fuehrer, Goebbels reported to Party officials in Munich, "has decided that such demonstrations are not to be prepared or organized by the party, but so far as they originate spontaneously, they are not to be discouraged either."
Kristallnacht was a crucial turning point in German policy regarding the Jews and may be considered as the actual beginning of what is now called the Holocaust.
Yad Vashem has created a special online exhibition, It Came From Within, which provides an informative and experiential context to the events surrounding Kristallnacht, because there are important lessons to be drawn from Kristallnacht, it served as a bridge experience for both Jews and Nazis.
For the Jews, there was the terrifying realization that political antisemitism can lead to violence, even in Western Civilization. It also demonstrated that apathy can still pervade the world when the lives of Jews or other minorities are threatened.
For the Nazis, Kristallnacht taught that while the world might condemn their pogroms, it would not actively oppose them. World opinion, however, taught the Nazis the value of secrecy in the perpetration of future actions against Jews. Added to the complaints of Germans offended by the random violence of Kristallnacht, the stage was set for the "Final Solution"--the organized, bureaucratically efficient genocide of 6,000,000 men, women, and children.
In retrospect, Kristallnacht was more than the shattering of windows and illusions. It portended the physical destruction of European Jewry. As such, this commemoration must be observed both as a memorial and as a warning. -- Simon Wiesenthal Center
I urge you to visit It Came From Within, so you know what really happened in our past, so that you might better protect our future. If we do not learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. Never again are not just words.
Posted by LindaSoG at November 10, 2008 07:13 AM
Comments
This scares the heck out of me....
Posted by: Foxfier at November 10, 2008 12:32 PM
With nearly 60% Obamabots out there, buy ammo and guns, all you can get. Clinton's jackboot Janet Reno was a piker compared to this tyrant's ambitions.
Posted by: Jack at November 10, 2008 01:26 PM