The Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum in Jerusalem held a memorial service and seminar to mark the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht or "Night of Broken Glass," Thursday. The event, a joint initiative with the Association of Israelis of Central European Origin, was attended by German Ambassador to Israel Susanne Wasum-Rainer.
Speaking at the event, David Boaz, president of the Association of Central European Origin, said, "We mark 80 years to the pogrom, a series of riots that included the destruction and burning of synagogues, the looting of Jewish stores, a murderous campaign and the internment of tens of thousands [of people] in concentration camps. The Nazis called it 'Kristallnacht.' As we do every year, we have convened at Yad Vashem for a memorial rally and a day of study, lest we forget the events and lest the events forgotten."
As part of the day of study, Professor Moshe Zimmermann delivered a lecture on the subject of "Exclusion, refugee-dom and pogrom – 80 years later."
Television presenter David Witzthum moderated a panel on the subject of "Echoes of the pogrom during the pogrom and in modern memory."
The day commenced with a special memorial ceremony in the museum's Hall of Remembrance and a rally in the auditorium. During the ceremony, Professor Charlie Greenbaum, who witnessed the pogrom lit one of the beacons. Elisheva Ben Yashar, whose parents moved to Israel with her right after the pogrom when she was still a baby, laid a wreath at the Hall of Remembrance.
At the turn of the 20th century, Jews poured into Berlin from all over Eastern Europe to enjoy the fruits of the Industrial Revolution. It was a period of growth and prosperity for the Jewish community in the capital of the German Empire.
In September 1904, a synagogue was dedicated in eastern Berlin. Thirty-four years after its inauguration, that synagogue was spared the destruction of Kristallnacht thanks to its location in an internal courtyard surrounded by buildings.
On the night between Nov. 9 and 10, all across the German Reich, SA militias attacked dozens of synagogues, desecrating them and setting them on fire. Setting fire to a synagogue on an empty street, though, could have caused damage to the neighboring "Aryan" homes.
The synagogue continued to serve the Jewish community for another two years, largely as a school for the neighborhood's Jews, until it was taken over by the Nazis and converted into stables and a warehouse. After World War II, the synagogue renewed its activities for the small Jewish community that remained in communist Germany.
In 2007, the synagogue, by that time one of the largest in Germany, was renovated so as to restore it to its former glory.
On Friday, the synagogue was set to host the main memorial rally in Germany marking 80 years to Kristallnacht. Among those set to attend are German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble.
Memorial rallies and ceremonies will be held across the world this weekend to mark the pogrom, which according to Nazi data, killed 91 Jews, but according to historical research, killed around 400 Jews.
The number of victims of this deadly organized riot was actually much higher: Hundreds of Jews throughout the Reich committed suicide after Kristallnacht. Hundreds more would meet their deaths in the concentration camps. During Kristallnacht and the days that followed, the Germans arrested 30,000 Jewish men and sent them to the concentration camps. The total number of victims stands somewhere between 1,500 and 2,500 people. Fourteen hundred synagogues were set on fire and destroyed and some 8,000 Jewish businesses were looted.
Accelerated process of discrimination
Even before Kristallnacht, Jews had been the subject of an accelerated process of extreme discrimination through the passing of laws, systematic oppression and violent outbursts. The Nazis had hoped to push the Jews to emigrate and take their property.
The 1938 Evian Conference on Jewish refugees proved that the world was completely indifferent to the fate of the Jews. Outside of the Dominican Republic, the dozens of other countries that took part in the conference refused to take in Jewish refugees, citing various reasons, some of them anti-Semitic in nature.
The Germans saw this refusal as approval of their anti-Jewish policies and a green light from the international community to search for a "final solution" to the Jewish problem.
Some two weeks after the failed Evian Conference, the Germans announced they would revoke the residency permits of all foreigners, including Jews of foreign origin who were born in Germany.
Meanwhile, the Polish government announced it would not allow the return of Jews of Polish origin, whose citizenship had been revoked.
On Oct. 28, the Nazis ordered 12,000 Polish Jews to leave their homes, allowing them only one suitcase for their belongings. They were transported by train to the border with Poland, where the Poles refused to allow most of them in. Thousands were stuck for days on the buffer zone between the two countries, among them the parents of 17-year-old German-born Herschel Grynszpan, who had been living in Paris at the time. He had lost his right to remain in Paris and was unable to immigrate to Palestine because of restrictions set by the British Mandate. When he received a desperate postcard from his parents, Greenspan decided he would commit a desperate act: He purchased a gun, and on the morning of Nov. 7, arrived at the German Embassy in Paris and shot German diplomat Ernst vom Rath, who died from his wounds the next day.
In his book, German historian Armin Fuhrer claims that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ordered his personal doctor to ensure vom Rath would die so that he would be able to blame the Jews for the assassination.
Speaking at Fuhrer's funeral, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels said, "It would be very surprising if the German people were not angered by the fact that a German diplomat was murdered by a Jew, so angry that the people take the law into their hands and attack Jewish businesses, community centers and synagogues. Clearly, the Nazi party is forbidden from organizing such spontaneous outbursts of violence, but we cannot condemn them if they should occur."
The "spontaneous violence" erupted later that night.
Kristallnacht was the most widespread act of violence the Jews had ever known under the Reich. In the eyes of many, this pogrom was seen as the event that triggered the Holocaust. Nazi Germany was the recipient of some condemnation, and Jewish communities and various organizations announced a boycott. Some countries were so kind as to open their gates to a limited number of Jewish refugees, but as a rule, the world was indifferent to the plight and despair of the Jews.
