Kristallnacht — Why We Remember

Kristallnacht — the Night of Broken Glass — was the night of November 9–10, 1938. Nazi German leaders unleashed a nationwide anti-Jewish riot across Germany and Austria. It was meant to look like a spontaneous outburst. It was state-sponsored vandalism, arson and terror.

More than 1,400 synagogues were burned or destroyed. Thousands of Jewish-owned businesses were vandalized. Jewish homes were broken into. Religious objects were desecrated. Jews were humiliated, assaulted and killed. Hundreds of Jewish people died during Kristallnacht and its aftermath.

About 26,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to the concentration camps at Dachau, Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen — imprisoned because they were Jewish.

Afterward, the regime fined the Jewish community one billion Reichsmarks as an “atonement payment” for the damage the rioters had caused — and passed a wave of new anti-Jewish laws.

Why we remember

Kristallnacht was a turning point. After it, there was no pretending that Jews had a future in Germany. It showed what happens when hatred of Jews is organized by a state — and watched in silence.

We remember it not for one day. We remember it because it is a warning. Never again means watching — and saying so — when it starts again.

Figures: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia, “Kristallnacht.”