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November 9, 2005
Night of Broken Glass
November 9, 1938 -- tonight is the anniversary of Kristallnacht, or Night of Broken Glass.
"On November 9, 1938, Goebbels announced a government sanctioned reprisal against the Jews. Synagogues were ravaged and then burned. Jewish shop windows were broken. Jews were beaten, raped, arrested, and murdered. Throughout Germany and Austria, the pogrom rampaged. Police and firefighters stood by as synagogues burned and Jews were beaten, only taking action to prevent the spread of fire to non-Jew owned property and to stop looters - upon Heydrich's orders. The pogrom spanned the night of November 9 to 10. During this night 191 synagogues were set on fire. The damage to shop windows was estimated at $4 million U.S. dollars. 91 Jews were murdered while 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to camps such as Dachau, Sachsenhausen, and Buchenwald."And, that was just the beginning. I think that the Jews in Germany (and around the world) had been able to maintain the mistaken belief that they were safe, until that night. Kristallnacht turned out to be the beginning of what we now call the Holocaust. The only thing I can compare it to the morning of September 11, 2001 when I felt that my safety and the safety of my family was at stake. While Kristallnacht isn't a "happy anniversary," not all anniversaries are -- some dates are just meant to be remembered in your heart.
Posted by Michele at November 9, 2005 7:05 PM