The 82nd Anniversary of Kristallnacht

 

Dear JCCP/CBT family,



On the night of November 9-10, 1938, violence against Jews broke out across Germany. It appeared to be unplanned, set off by anger over the assassination of a German official in Paris at the hands of a Jewish teenager. Yet in fact, German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and other Nazis carefully organized the pogroms. Over two days, at least 91 Jews were murdered, over 250 synagogues were burned, 7,000 Jewish businesses were vandalized, and Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, schools, and homes were looted while police and fire brigades stood by. The pogroms became known as Kristallnacht, the "Night of Broken Glass," for the shattered glass from the store windows that littered the streets.

 

The morning after the pogroms, 30,000 German Jewish men were arrested for the "crime" of being Jewish and sent to concentration camps. Hundreds of them perished. Jewish women were also arrested and sent to local jails. Businesses owned by Jews were not allowed to reopen unless they were managed by non-Jews. Curfews were placed on Jews, limiting the hours of the day they could leave their homes.

 

After the "Night of Broken Glass," life was even more difficult for German and Austrian Jewish children and teenagers. Already barred from entering museums, public playgrounds, and swimming pools, now they were expelled from the public schools. Jewish children, like their parents, were completely segregated. In despair, many Jewish adults committed suicide. Most families tried desperately to leave. 

 

Kristallnacht changed the nature of the Nazi persecution of Jews from economic, political, and social to physical with beatings, incarceration, and murder. The event is often referred to as the beginning of the Holocaust. In the words of historian Max Rein, "Kristallnacht came...and everything was changed."   

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Arthur Weiner