Tensions rise: Kristallnacht anniversary brings to mind rising anti-Semitism in Germany

As The Guardian puts it, November 9 has long been “the most delicate day on the German calendar”: a balancing act of commemoration of the state-sanctioned bloody destruction of Nazi pogroms across the country in 1938 and, 51 years later, the overnight fall of the world’s most famous barrier – The Berlin Wall. Both events had international consequences that are still felt today. The first dominates the nation’s collective memory.

Celebrating this date has never been easy. For good reason, November 9 was not chosen as a national holiday for a united Germany in 1990, notes The Guardian.

Historians and commentators have long called it Schicksalstag (day of destiny), although this, according to critics, suggests something that was done to the German nation rather than something in which the people played a part and had voting right.

“November 9 marks not only a brutal prelude to the crimes of the National Socialists, but also reminds us that the persecution and attempted extermination of European Jews began in plain sight, in cities and their centers, under the watchful gaze of neighbors, colleagues, friends, fellow musicians, whether from an orchestra or a sports club,” says Petra Bahr, Protestant Bishop of Hannover and member of the German Council of Ethics.

On Thursday, the 85th anniversary of what is sometimes called Kristallnacht – the night of broken glass – the emphasis, especially in light of the outbreak of war in the Middle East, is less on remembering the historical event and more on reflecting on its lasting impact on today. day.

Across Germany, at the sites of destroyed synagogues and inside those that have been reconstructed in recent years, politicians, mayors and other Germans will gather with Jewish leaders for memorial ceremonies, speeches, concerts, candlelight vigils and readings.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz will give a speech at Berlin’s central synagogue highlighting Germany’s commitment to ensuring history never repeats itself.

The ceremonies will recall how Kristallnacht marked the beginning of state-sanctioned racial hatred, paving the way for the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were killed. For many thousands of German Jews, this was the catalyst that forced them to flee.

Organized gangs of thugs destroyed about 7,500 Jewish businesses and more than 1,200 synagogues. Between 1,000 and 2,000 German Jews were killed, some committed suicide, and another 30,000 were kidnapped.

George Shefi, 92, one of the few remaining witnesses to that tragedy, traveled from Israel for this year’s commemoration, returning to the childhood home he was forced to leave after the pogrom.

He told the BBC his memories of watching as a six-year-old boy as a group of people taunted a Jewish shop owner as he tried to erase anti-Semitic graffiti from the pavement in front of a destroyed Jewish-owned hat shop near his home. “I can still see that picture in my mind, all the hats and glass, like it was yesterday,” he said.

This week, while visiting his Berlin school, which was burned to the ground during the pogrom, Shefi, who fled via the Kindertransport to Britain, was given a small box containing a fragment of tile found in the ruins as a gift from students.

The Holocaust education charity which organized his March of the Living UK trip said it hoped it showed the importance of taking responsibility and “standing up to all forms of hate”.

The question of how the Germans should take responsibility has been the subject of heated debate since the October 7 attacks on Israelis, in which 1,400 people were killed and 240 taken hostage, and subsequent Israeli retaliatory attacks on the Gaza Strip, resulting in which killed thousands of Palestinian civilians.

“After the events of October 7 [дата] November 9 can no longer remain as it was,” Bahr wrote.

The war has prompted some to question Germany’s position towards Israel. Its post-war foreign policy, following the bloody era of the Nazi regime, was largely aimed at regaining the respect of the international community.

This included establishing close ties with Israel and declaring it part of Germany’s national raison d’etre – the state’s raison d’être – to defend the country. Across the political spectrum, criticism of Israel is considered highly controversial and socially unacceptable.

While civil rights groups condemned police and the government for what they see as heavy-handedness and censorship in banning a series of pro-Palestinian protests, others insisted the crackdown was not strong enough.

Amid a spate of anti-Semitic attacks over the past month, federal Home Affairs Minister Nancy Feser warned of a possible escalation ahead of the anniversary. She said that Jews living in Germany need to be given guarantees “that 2023 is not 1938.”

On Thursday, politicians including Scholz, who became the first foreign leader to visit Israel since the attacks last October, will gather at the Beth Zion synagogue in central Berlin for an 11 a.m. ceremony that will be broadcast live on television.

The synagogue, built in 2014 on the site of the 19th synagogue of the same name destroyed by the Nazis, was attacked last month with Molotov cocktails by two masked men, as reported in the Jewish press under the headline: “Molotov cocktail just on the anniversary of Kristallnacht.”