German president, Merkel to join Jewish leaders to commemorate 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht
BERLIN: Germany will Friday remember victims of the Nazi pogrom that heralded the start of the Third Reich’s drive to wipe out Jews, at a time when anti-Semitism is resurgent in the West.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will join Jewish leaders at Germany’s biggest synagogue to commemoratethe80thanniversary of Kristallnacht, also known as the Night of Broken Glass.
Steinmeier will make a speech at the Bundestag marking one of Germany’s darkest days, but also two other momentous events in the country’s history that also fell on Nov 9 — the end of the imperial government in 1918 and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
The grimmest of the three dates was that in 1938, when Nazi thugs murdered at least 90 Jews, torched 1,400 synagogues across Germany and Austria, and destroyed Jewishowned shops and businesses.
The pretext for the coordinated action was the fatal shooting on Nov 7, 1938, of a German diplomat in Paris by a Polish Jewish student.
In what they labelled their retaliation, the Nazis rounded up and deported at least 30,000 Jews to concentration camps. In addition, they made the Jews pay ‘compensation’ for the damage caused to property.
The brutal rampage marked the point at which local persecution of Jews became systematic, culminating in the Holocaust that claimed some six million lives.
In recent years across Germany on Nov 9, people have got on their knees to polish ‘Stolpersteine’ (stumbling stones) — coastersized brass plaques embedded in pavements bearing the names of Jewish victims in front of their former homes.
But in Berlin last year, 16 plaques were dug up and stolen just before the Kristallnacht anniversary, in a sign of a resurgence in antiSemitism. On the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, also known in Germany as Reichspogromnacht, far-right militants were planning a demonstration in Berlin, forcing authorities to step in with a ban.
“The idea that right-wing extremists are going to march through the government district in the dark with the burning candles is unbearable,” said Berlin’s interior minister Andreas Geisel.
“We must not tolerate open rightwing extremism under the cover of freedom of speech.”
Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, noted the deteriorating situation across the West.
“It would be impossible to mark this seminal event in Jewish history without noting the frightening climate of anti-Semitism and xenophobia currently spreading across Europe and the United States,” he told AFP.
“The far right is gaining power at an alarming speed, and neo-Nazis are feeling emboldened to march in the streets shouting hateful slurs and advocating the most dangerous brands of nationalism and hatred.” — AFP