Interior of Berlin's Fasanenstrasse synagogue after Kristallnacht. The Jewish Community Center was built in its place in 1959.
Posted on 11/09/2007 10:23:03 AM PST by DogByte6RER
Remembering Kristallnacht, the 'Night of Broken Glass'
By Hilda Pierce
November 9, 2007
Crystal Night is a beautiful name for an evil event that took place in Austria and Germany on the night of Nov. 9, 1938. It was orchestrated on the orders of Adolph Hitler's minister of propaganda, Josef Goebbels. Adolf Eichmann also had a part in organizing the “Night of Broken Glass,” the night of burning synagogues, smashing windows of Jewish stores, looting, killing or torturing Jews on the streets and in their homes, 69 years ago today. It is a historical date because it was also the birthday of Martin Luther, born in 1483.
This is my story:
At age 16, Jewish, born and living in Vienna, I witnessed Hitler and his hordes parade into Vienna, to effect the “Anschluss” (annexation of Austria to the Germany). I stood trembling and frozen in fear, eye to eye, just 10 feet away from Hitler, slowly passing by in his Mercedes staff car on March 12, 1938.
Every day brought new threats, new horrors, new fears, and less hope for Jews.
Miraculously, I found a way to escape to England in August of that year, alone, without money, without parents.
In London, the Jewish Children's Refugee Committee found foster homes for me. Being under 18, I was not allowed to take a job.
While I was still in Vienna, we were robbed of all our valuable possessions. Our beautiful apartment was filled with valuable furnishings, paintings, Persian carpets, Rosenthal China, silver and other treasures. Our antique furniture store and warehouses were stocked with furniture, paintings and other valuables, even the bedroom set of the Austrian princess Marie Antoinette. All of it was “voluntarily and legally” obtained by Nazi force. It was, when at 2 in the morning, six SS and SA men (storm troopers) pounded on our apartment door. Roused from bed, my father let them in. He was ordered to sit at his desk and sign papers giving them all of our possessions, our store, warehouses, bank accounts and jewelry.
I screamed, “Papa, don't sign, don't sign!” but my mother dragged me out of the room, fearing for our lives. The Nazi robbers left. We were numb, stunned, but alive.
A month later, when I had already fled to England, my parents were forced into a coal cellar, without sanitary facilities, with many other Jewish families. When they had to go out into streets to get food some never came back.
In Paris, on Nov. 7, 1938, a 17-year-old boy, Herschel Grynszpan, distraught over the treatment of his German Jewish parents in Poland, shot and killed the German minor official Herr von Rath. That was the excuse for Kristallnacht two days later.
Thousands of people participated in this horrendous carnage, an organized massacre dictated by Berlin. Not just hoodlums, but ordinary middle-class men and women, neighbors, former friends, smashed windows, looted Jewish shops, burned synagogues, tortured and beat senseless thousands of Jews and the rest sent to concentration camps. In my Vienna, the bloodshed was even greater; hundreds of Jews committed suicide. There it happened on Nov. 9. Austrians had one great regret, that so much needless damage was inflicted on property.
Crystal Night was the beginning of the Holocaust. It sowed the seeds for the Second World War. Had Hitler been stopped at that time, the war and genocide might have been avoided. All these valuable people, Jews who had contributed so much to the world in science, art, music, mores and medicine, could have continued giving their invaluable gifts to mankind.
Hitler killed not only 6 million Jews but also 60 million other people. It was the darkest chapter in European history.
The English family with whom I lived was loving and kind. They brought my parents to England shortly before the start of the war, saving their lives.
Saying goodbye to mother and father again in 1940, I came to America on a French ship, attacked by German submarines.
Back in England, my parents were arrested as German citizens and put into separate internment camps on the Isle of Man, to be released many months later.
In September 1943, through German mines and the U-boat-infested Atlantic, in a convoy of 21 ships, 12 of which were sunk, my parents arrived in New York. They, my husband, baby and I, were reunited in Chicago, a family once more. Our greatest joy and pride was receiving the great honor of American citizenship.
I now live with my husband and little dog in a 20th-floor apartment here in San Diego. I call it my studio in the sky.
As Western Civilization now confronts a new form of fascism, Islamofascism, one wonders if history will repeat itself what with the likes of the Islamic nazis running the regime in Iran and other totalitarian states like Syria, etc.
Not that there are any more than 100 Jews left in the country.
Aprox. 24000 Jews live in Iran.
bttt
Interior of Berlin's Fasanenstrasse synagogue after Kristallnacht. The Jewish Community Center was built in its place in 1959.
There was NO excuse for what happened...none whatsoever.
Kristallnacht, example of physical damage
Jews arrested during Kristallnacht line up at the Appellplatz for roll call at Buchenwald concentration camp
Thought it was interesting that oppression started and ended today in different years.
The frontpage of The New York Times of November 11, 1938 did not mention that the German Nazi government initiated the attacks, but said that Goebbels called to stop it. (It appears that very little has changed with the NY Times over nearly 70 years. What a disgusting newsrag, then and now.)
I looks as if the men are saying “hmmph, look at that.”
I wonder if those poor people had any idea that this evil would still be remembered and deplored 69 years later. I wonder if they just felt all alone in the world. The fact that the evils of the Nazis are still brought to mind and harshly criticized gives me some hope for the human race.
And some deny it ever happened.
Not to diminish the evil of what happened on Kristalnacht and the Holocaust in general, but whenever stories like this are told, I always think of the many forgotten stories of the other holocaust that was occurring 1000 miles to the east at the same time. It’s tragic that the crimes of Soviet Communism do not get the same treatment by the media and academia that the Nazis’ crimes get.
Especially considering the author is 85.
It was a significant date for the Nazis because it marked the twentieth anniversary of the end of War, the overthrow of Kaiser Wilhelm II, and the birth of the degenerate Wiemar Republic. I don't think many folks know or care that Luther was born on that date. I don't even know why the author mentioned it. Maybe because Marty was anti semitic and the author hoped to associate him in some convoluted way with K-nite.
Read the second paragraph; “Anti-Jewish activities under the direction of Storm Troopers and Nazi Party members began early this morning...”
While not naming any specific leader this seems clearly to indicate that the melee had the blessing of the hishest government offices.
It's a tangential relationship and a tiny point, but not convoluted. Luther's attitude toward Jews was part and parcel of Europe's ancient, widespread and deeply ingrained anti-semitism, of which Krystallnacht was a drastic expression.
Under certain circumstances such a thing could happen here. There is more than one group among us that does not have the best interests of the country in their hearts. Anger among the people can reach a point where it explodes into action. It makes no difference whether the anger is righteous or incited. The physical result is the same; lots of corpses.
Is that according to the Julian calendar that was in use in 1483 or the Gregorian calendar that we use today?
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