Kristallnacht–75 Years Ago, but only part of the story

Yesterday and today mark the events, 75 years ago, where the German Nazis, let by the SA, wreaked several nights of havoc upon the German Jews. It was a terrible time. Already persecuted and tagged “persona non grata” according to Nazi values, the shooting of a German official by a Jew was used as an excuse to terrorize the Jewish population of Germany and Austria (which had been earlier annexed by Germany). Led primarily by the Nazi SA, some German citizens joined the mob action which destroyed nearly all the Jewish synagogues in Germany and ransacked many Jewish shops and homes–it was indeed, the night of broken glass–kristallnacht. About 100 Jews were murdered outright, another 30,000 arrested and imprisoned.

Over 1000 synagogues destroyed, 7000 Jewish businesses destroyed or damaged–and the rest of the world watched. Oh yeah, it reported on it, but it just watched it all happen, afraid of taking any action. Of course, we know what the eventual result was.

Kristallnacht is seem often as the beginning of the “final solution,” the systematic murder of Jews by the Nazis. But this is misleading. No doubt, it was a terrible, tragic series of events. But it was just a wake-up call to the rest of the world about what the future held.

Germany in 1933 had about 522,00 Jews. By the eve of World War II, there were only 214, 000 left. Yet we hear about the holocaust and the figure of 6 million Jews. But that’s only part of the story. Most of the Jews who were murdered by the Nazis between 1939 and 1945 were not German Jews–about half were actually Polish Jews, murdered by the Nazis. When World War II started, there were over 3 million Jews living in Poland, and throughout history, Poland had been a home to many Jews, welcoming them, and protecting them. When Germany invaded Poland, it “inherited” all the Polish Jews. And so, Kristallnacht was only a harbinger of things to come, the final solution.

History is complicated, and often written by the victors. The history of the systemic murder of not only 6 million Jews, but millions of Poles, Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Lithuanians (among others) by both Hitler and Stalin during World War II and the years leading up to it is a very complicated story.

But, 75 years ago tonight, the stage was being set for some terrible, terrible times in the course of human history. And sadly, countries like mine stood idly by, expressing outrage, perhaps, but sitting idly by. The end result was a world war with over 20,000,000–that’s 20 million–people dead. But a milestone in that journey happened a mere 75 years ago tonight…. Never forget…

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