Eighty-five years ago, Nazis rampaged through the streets of Germany, desecrating and burning synagogues, Jewish-owned business and institutions. The night was dubbed "Kristalnacht" or "Night of Broken Glass." From the Associated Press:
"On Nov. 9, 1938, the Nazis killed at least 91 people and vandalized 7,500 Jewish businesses. They also burned more than 1,400 synagogues, according to Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.
Up to 30,000 Jewish men were arrested, many of them taken to concentration camps such as Dachau or Buchenwald. Hundreds more committed suicide or died as a result of mistreatment in the camps years before official mass deportations began.
Kristallnacht was a turning point in the escalating persecution of Jews that eventually led to the murder of 6 million European Jews by the Nazis and their supporters during the Holocaust."
Germany and the rest of Europe has undergone many changes since then, but anti-Semitism remains, and is almost universally present. As we're seeing in the aftermath of Hamas' brutal attack on Israeli civilians, and Israel's overwhelming military response, anti-Semitism is again on the rise and must be confronted -- along with other hatreds -- so there will never again be a Night of Broken Glass.
(photo: A synagogue in Hanover, Germany, burns during Kristalnacht)
