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Hatred creeps in on little steps, establishing itself like a cancer, a cell at a time. Inch after inch is surrendered until feet are gone, then yards, then more until, finally, the streets run red with blood. Every tolerated incursion becomes a foothold for hatred. Many small incursions had been taken in Germany in the early days of Hitler's despotic rule. These led to Kristallnacht. (The Night of Broken Glass). Seventy years ago, Kristallnacht occurred.
On Kristallnacht, Wikipedia says :
In the early hours of November 10, coordinated destruction broke out in cities, towns and villages throughout the Third Reich. The consequences of this violence were disastrous for the Jews of the Third Reich. In a single night, Kristallnacht saw the destruction of more than 200 Synagogues, and the ransacking of thousands of Jewish businesses and homes. It marked the beginning of the systematic eradication of a people who could trace their ancestry in Germany to Roman times, and served as a prelude to the Holocaust that was to follow.
Many of the Synagogues that were burned were bordered by homes or businesses belonging to non-Jews. This country-wide devastation was planned in such excruciating detail that the fire departments were on hand -- not to save the Synagogues, but to protect adjacent non-Jewish homes from catching fire.
Remember.org describes the events of that night over and above the organized and total destruction of synagogues:
Armed Nazis broke into Jewish homes throughout the land, smashed furniture, threw belongings into the street, looted money and valuables, and raped women and girls as young as thirteen before the eyes of their families. Any sign of resistance - even a word or a gesture - was suppressed with ruthless brutality. Women as well as men and boys were beaten, knifed, and shot. Pets were hurled out of upper-story windows alongside their owners. Jews were plunged into ice-cold rivers...Jews were imprisoned for assault when they tried to defend themselves, and for arson when their shops were burned down. More than one hundred Jews were killed; and thirty thousand men between the ages of sixteen and sixty, nearly twenty percent of the total, were picked up and packed off to concentration camps. Goebbels, lying with inimitable crudeness and aplomb, told foreign reporters: `Not a Jew has had a hair disturbed.' All stories to the contrary were `stinking lies.'
Historyplace.com provides a chilling close up of the aftermath of the event.
In Germany, on November 12, top Nazis, including Hermann Göring and Joseph Goebbels, held a meeting concerning the economic impact of the damage and to discuss further measures to be taken against the Jews. SS leader Reinhard Heydrich reported 7500 businesses destroyed, 267 synagogues burned (with 177 totally destroyed) and 91 Jews killed.
Heydrich requested new decrees barring Jews from any contact with Germans by excluding them from public transportation, schools, even hospitals, essentially forcing them into ghettos or out of the country. Goebbels said the Jews would be made to clean out the debris from burned out synagogues which would then be turned into parking lots.
At this meeting it was decided to eliminate Jews entirely from economic life in the Reich by transferring all Jewish property and enterprises to 'Aryans,' with minor compensation given to the Jews in the form of bonds.
Regarding the economic impact of the damage from Kristallnacht and the resulting massive insurance claims, Hermann Göring stated the Jews themselves would be billed for the damage and that any insurance money due to them would be confiscated by the State.
"I shall close the meeting with these words," said Göring, "German Jewry shall, as punishment for their abominable crimes, et cetera, have to make a contribution for one billion marks. That will work. The swine won't commit another murder. Incidentally, I would like to say that I would not like to be a Jew in Germany."
The Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance provides a detailed history and some horrifying eye-witness accounts of this night.
The Wall Street Journal points to the first ever pan-European memorial event, which will be held in Brussels Sunday and Monday.
On the 70th anniversary of the 'Kristallnacht' pogroms in Nazi Germany in 1938, a series of events will be held in Brussels on 9 and 10 November 2008. They will to be attended by several hundred political and Jewish leaders from across Europe, members of the European Parliament, diplomats, and other dignitaries, as well as survivors of the Holocaust. These events will be
