Seventy-one years ago tonight. a widespread and brutal riot was perpetrated against Jews in Germany and Austria. Reichskristallnacht, or “the Night of Broken Glass” represented one of the first mass attacks on Jews under the Nazi government, and it is widely believed, by scholars of the period, to be the act that lit the way to the Nazi’s horrid and unthinkable “final solution.”
Accurate figures are difficult to ascertain. According to The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, “rioters burned or destroyed 267 synagogues, vandalized or looted 7,500 Jewish businesses, and killed at least 91 Jewish people. They also damaged many Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, schools, and homes as police and fire brigades stood aside.” I have heard, from varying sources, that more than a thousand synagogues were destroyed, and close to two hundred people were killed, though the sources generally agree on the figures for the destruction of Jewish businesses.
Regardless of the numbers, however, I think this event is an important one to remember because it represents the beginnings of state-sponsored hate against members of its citizenry (which is not to say that this is the first instance of such a thing, but it is certainly a visible and visceral one). While the Nazi party leadership took pains to distance themselves from the riots – they claimed that they were “spontaneous” responses to the assassination of a minor German diplomatic figure in France at the hands of a teenager distraught over the deportation and mistreatment of his Jewish parents – the truth of the matter is that the orders for the riots came from those in authority. People whose job it was to protect German citizens – and let’s not forget that the greatest proportion of Jews targeted in these attacks were citizens up until the Nuremberg laws revoked their status, leaving them country-less – chose instead to aid the rioters. The fire brigades manned their hoses not to put out the fires in synagogues, but to prevent those flames from spreading to the homes and offices of “innocent Germans.” The police, instead of rounding up and arresting the vandals and rioters, arrested Jews by the thousands and sent them to concentration camps. Murder, while not officially condoned, was not punished, either.
The burning of the synagogue in Ober Ramstdt during Kristallnacht. The local fire-department prevented the fire from spreading to a nearby home, but made no attempt to intervene in the synagogue fire.
Trudy Isenberg Collection, USHMM Archives
What I’m getting at here is that we always, all of us, walk a very thin line. I hear some of the rhetoric coming from the fringes (on both sides) in this country and I wonder just how long it’s going to be before our “us vs. them,” “if you’re not with us, you’re against us” philosophy breaks down OUR republic. What I’m getting at here is that we must remember, even (especially) in the midst of our most passionate disagreement, our common humanity. I may not agree with you. I may not even like you very much, but I will always respect you as a human being.
We’re smart enough to learn from the past; to do otherwise is to invite certain peril. Let’s not let this ever, ever happen again.
What worries me is that we (the collective ‘we’) always say “Never again” and it happens again and again. Our memories are short.
Is it that our memories are short, Dingo, or is it something else?
Is it a form of denial? A degree of arrogance? A case of not be able to see the forest for the trees?
In other words, it’s not that we say “Never again,” it’s that we say, “But that will never happen to us,” and we say that because we’re sure we’ll have learned from history and that we’re better than that, and that we’ll keep a sharper lookout so that all the little things won’t some day coalesce into one big thing.
I bet a lot of Germans thought that back in the Thirties, too.
A lot of Americans, as far as I can tell, think of themselves, of us collectively, as the “good guys,” and thus deny the possibility of state-sponsored atrocities.
If, as a nation, we once held some “moral high ground,” that was at a time now long ago.
It may seem out of character to say this, but the frenzy of citizens arming themselves has at least one thing going for it. When the goons come to the door, you can plug as many as you can before they take you down.
Of course, the problem is realizing its the goons, ain’t it?
Yeah, well, what happens when WE’RE the ‘goons’?
That’s what I think I’m getting at here; when our mutual disrespect becomes so ingrained, so natural, so matter-of-fact that we fail to see it as disrespect at all*, but more in terms of “that’s exactly THEY (whomever “they” is) deserve” is when we cease to be cognizant of one another’s humanity. THAT’S where the trouble REALLY starts.
The Nazis weren’t entirely wrong when they claimed that the riots of Kristallnacht were a response of the everyday German on the Street. While most of the riots were STARTED by people who considered themselves under orders to incite unrest (documentation shows that the Gestapo, the SS, and many branches of the Hitler Youth sparked rioting while dressed in civilian clothes to perpetuate the myth of the riots being spontaneous), a good many civilians DID participate once the fun began. A person will do, spurred on by a mob, something s/he’d never DREAM of doing alone. And let’s not forget the people who stood by and let it happen – who didn’t actively participate, but who didn’t step in to say that it was wrong, either (check out the spectators watching the synagogue burn in the picture I included).
We have, as individuals, an obligation to our fellows to be decent, gentle, and just. I have an obligation to defend your rights (and property and safety) just as vigorously as I would defend my own, because we are ALL CONNECTED. Allowing you to be abused puts ME at risk.
I just wish we could all begin to understand that…
*somewhat related in the casual disrespect vein; I was driving my family to Sphyrnatude’s house yesterday when a young man, the passenger in the car ahead of us, rolled down his window, leaned his head and shoulders out, looked back at my car, and gave us the bird. I have NO idea why he did it – I wasn’t tailgating (and even if I were, the car didn’t have a rear-view mirror, anyway); the boy just saw an opportunity to be randomly hateful, and he took it. Today it’s the finger – will it be a fist (or a baseball bat) tomorrow?
Good questions, NHFalcon. Maybe it is denial or arrogance. Food for thought this post and comment thread.
Surprisingly, I didn’t hear anything about Kristallnacht on NPR yesterday. There was more than ample coverage about the anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down. How soon forgotten.
“We have, as individuals, an obligation to our fellows to be decent, gentle, and just. I have an obligation to defend your rights (and property and safety) just as vigorously as I would defend my own, because we are ALL CONNECTED. Allowing you to be abused puts ME at risk.”
If all of the churches gave out copies of The Random House Dictionary of the English Language instead of the Bible, wouldn’t we all be more on the same page?
You’re talking my kind of religion. No truer words ever said or heard, I’ve got your back too.
Religion is religion. They have to buy into and believe it for whatever reason. My version of faith looks more like yours.
Thanks for posting this time, and every other time.