75: German Pogrom

From DW:

"Germany remembers 1938 Nazi pogrom"

On the 75th anniversary of the Nazi pogrom against Germany's Jewish citizens, Europe's leading rabbi has called for tolerance and pluralism. The 1938 pogrom devastated Jewish life and was a prelude to the Holocaust.  The president of the Council of European Rabbis Pinchas Goldschmidt has warned against a trend in Europe toward restricting the religious freedom of minority groups. He called for tolerance and pluralism as Germany marks the 75th anniversary of the 1938 pogrom, also known as Reichskristallnacht.  Some 200 Rabbis were set to gather in Berlin for a three-day conference, starting Sunday, where they will discuss issues confronting Europe's Jewish communities. Ritual circumcision and the kosher and halal slaughtering of animals have come under criticism in Europe in recent years, sparking outrage among the continent's Jewish and Muslim communities. "With the conference taking place on the 75th anniversary of the pogrom, we want to remember the Shoa and show that Jewish life in Germany has been reborn," Goldschmidt told the German news agency DPA.  On November 9, 1938, a wave of anti-Semitic attacks was instigated against the Jewish communities of Austria and Germany by forces of the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Some 1,400 synagogues and thousands of Jewish medical practices, businesses, and homes and apartments were destroyed in a matter of hours. At least 91 people were killed. In the following days, 30,000 members of the Jewish community were deported to concentration camps. At the time, the Nazis in propaganda claimed that the violence was a spontaneous response to the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris. The shooter was 17-year-old Herschel Grynszpan, whose parents had been deported by the Nazis to Poland. But in reality the pogrom was organized by the Nazis and led by the paramilitary SS and SA. In Berlin, the Catholic and Protestant churches led a march through Berlin on Saturday to remember the victims of the 1938 pogrom. "We are going through the streets with the knowledge of how fragile a democratic culture and human rights are, and how fast the rule of law and justice can be sacrificed," said Protestant Bishop Markus Dröge. The anniversary events will culminate in a remembrance ceremony on Sunday in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.

^ Kristallnacht was not a random occurrence because of the shooting in Paris (as the Nazis claimed) but pre-planned and just waiting for the "right" event to ignite the mass-looting. This event is one of those that clearly shows the ordinary German alive at the time can never say they "didn't know" what was going on to the Jews and others during the Holocaust. While they may not have known about the mass shootings in the East they clearly knew about the concentration camps and this pogrom as they were out in the open for everyone to see and witness. The fact that thousands upon thousands of Jews were arrested and sent to the camps after November 9th  re-enforces that clarity. It has been 75 years and while a lot has changed in both Germany and the world it seems that a recent study shows that anti-Semitism is still very alive and active in Germany and many other places. Things that seem small today can bloom into more terrible events later on. From a "small" event like Kristallnacht in 1938 to the liberation of the death camps in 1945 shows that example. People always say "Never Again" but then in the same breath they allow events to happen at home and abroad that make that two-word phrase seem hypocritical. ^

http://www.dw.de/germany-remembers-1938-nazi-pogrom/a-17216241