We are commemorating today 77 years
since the Kristallnacht. This event, more than any other event in the history
of the Third Reich, symbolized the beginning of the Holocaust. Even though it
took place nearly a year before the outbreak of the war and around two years
before the Wannsee conference.
In the pogrom and looting that took
place all over the German Reich nearly all the synagogues (around 1,400) were
burned. Hundreds of Jews were assassinated either directly following the pogrom
or as an indirect outcome, around 7,000 Jewish businesses were destroyed or
damaged during the pogrom and around 30,000 Jews were expelled to concentration
camps following the Kristallnacht.
The Times wrote at the time: "No
foreign propagandist bent upon blackening Germany before the world could outdo
the tale of burnings and beatings, of blackguardly assaults on defenseless and
innocent people, which disgraced that country yesterday."
In an article released for
publication on the evening of 11 November, Goebbels, who orchestrated the
pogrom under instructions from Hitler, described the events of Kristallnacht to
the "healthy instincts" of the German people. He went on to explain:
"The German people are anti-Semitic. It has no desire to have its rights
restricted or to be provoked in the future by parasites of the Jewish
race."
Yet there were other Germans, though
we don't know how many, who felt ashamed while watching the looting of loyal
German citizens whose only crime was being Jewish.
The writing on the wall was clearer
than ever for the Jews. Therefore between the pogrom and the beginning of
the war more than 100,000 Jews fled Germany. The UK granted nearly 10,000 visas
to Jewish kids in what became known as the Kinder transport.
However, today we know that all
this was not enough to save European Jewry.
So what lessons can we learn from
what happened 77 years ago?
1. First - Jews
need a sovereign state. Whether they decide to live in Israel or not – a Jewish
state is a must. And not only to protect its own citizens but also to care for
the security of Jewish people all over the world.
2. Second - It is
not only the responsibility of Israel to protect World Jews but indeed all the
states in which there are Jewish communities. Consul General Quelle, We know
that Germany learned the lesson. However, there are too many places in Europe
where Jews are not safe anymore. The miserable events of the last summer in
Europe, in which Jews were assassinated and synagogues were nearly mobbed
were a sad reminder that the hatred of Jews and Antisemitism are not over.
3. Though it will
be fair to say that by-in-large the plague of Jewish hatred did not cross the
Atlantic Ocean so far, it will be also fair to mention the attack on the Jewish
campus in Kansas on April 14th 2014 , if only to remind
us that things can happen also in America. Superintendent McCarthy, we know
that the Chicago police under your command, just like other police commanders
all over the US, is doing its utmost to protect Jews in Chicago and indeed all
over America and do not let the relative calm to mislead us.
Friends, while we are not allowed to forget our history, we must look
forward with pride and dignity and make sure that such a horror will never
happen again to the Jewish people or, indeed, any other people.
!