Under the baobab: A visit to Berlin on the 87th anniversary of Kristallnacht
I flew into Berlin on the 87th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass.” On Nov. 9, 1938, the sounds of breaking glass shattered the air in cities throughout Germany. German storm troopers, Hitler youth and other Nazi sympathizers destroyed 7,000 Jewish businesses, 900 synagogues, killed 91 Jews and deported some 30,000 Jewish men to concentration camps. A U.S. official who witnessed the atrocity said, “Having demolished dwellings and hurled most of the moveable effects to the streets, the insatiably sadistic perpetrators threw many of the trembling inmates into a small stream that flows through the zoological park, commanding horrified spectators to spit at them, defile them with mud and jeer at their plight.”
Two days before the incident, Jewish refugee Herschel Grynszpan shot Ernst vom Rath, the Third Secretary of the German Embassy in Paris. Grynszpan was angry that his parents had been deported back to Poland from Hanover, Germany, where they had lived since 1914. He hoped to bring to the world’s attention what was happening to Europe’s Jews. He declared, “Being a Jew is not a crime. I am not a dog. I have a right to live and the Jewish people have a right to exist on earth.”
Hitler’s Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels delivered an inflammatory speech, urging the Nazis to take to the streets. Later that night Reinhard Heydrich, the head of the Security Service, sent a series of orders to all State Police offices: “Business establishments and homes of Jews could be destroyed but not looted; German life and property should not be jeopardized; and as soon as the events of the night permitted, officers should arrest as many Jews, particularly wealthy ones, as the local jails would hold.” The following day Goebbels announced, “We shed not a tear for them. ... They have stood in the way long enough. We can use the space made free more usefully than as Jewish fortresses.”
Kristallnacht did not start the Holocaust. That happened in the systems of hate, antisemitism and resentment that festered in the hearts and minds of people who had shared community with their Jewish neighbors for centuries. Kristallnacht was another early step toward Holocaust tyranny. It provided the Nazis with an opportunity to remove Jews from German public life.
Within a week, the Nazis declared that Jewish businesses could not be reopened unless they were to be managed by non-Jews. A week later, Jewish children were barred from attending school, and soon the Nazis issued the “Decree on Eliminating the Jews from German Economic Life,” which prohibited Jews from selling goods or services anywhere, from engaging in crafts work, from serving as the managers of any firms, and from being members of cooperatives. In addition, the Nazis determined that the Jews should be liable for the damages caused during Kristallnacht. A one billion mark fine was imposed on the Jewish community, for the death of vom Rath.
Six million European Jews were slaughtered by the Nazis and their supporters. In 1938 Jewish people were a significant minority in Germany. By 1945 the only Jews living in the country were the few who had survived the death camps, their brothers in the American and British armies who had come to liberate them, and the underground resistance. Our dads and moms were part of that liberating force. God bless them and thank them.
I went to Germany to participate in an antifascist, prodemocracy film project. We are rehearsing the project in an ironic setting, Goebbels propaganda factory, Studio Babelsberg. The arc of the universe is long but it does indeed bend toward justice.
Around town
Our football team has three games left in the season. They need our support. Congrats to Penn State women’s basketball coach Carolyn Kieger and the Lady Lions. Three in a row!
Charles Dumas is a lifelong political activist, a professor emeritus from Penn State, and was the Democratic Party’s nominee for the U.S. Congress in 2012. He is a Lions Paw honoree. He lives in State College with his wife and partner of over 50 years.