Allen Macartney
Special to Spur Ottawa

Hundreds of people gathered at Ottawa’s Kehillat Beth Synagogue, on November 7, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass)—when Nazi Germany launched the most violent stage of persecution of European Jews. It was the beginning of the Holocaust.

On the nights of November 9 and 10, 1938, Nazi troops and sympathizers attacked and burned Jewish homes, hospitals, businesses, and synagogues all over Germany and Austria. It was an orgy of fires, looting, and murder. Scores of Jewish people were killed and another 30,000 were sent to concentration camps. From that night onwards, the Nazis’ genocide advanced unrestrained.

“Kristallnacht must not only be a time of remembrance, but a time to work against racism, anti-Semitism, and genocide today.” With these words, Michael Berenbaum, the keynote speaker and former director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s research institute, began tracing out in vivid images the rise of Hitler’s Nazis.

“Within his first 100 days of coming to power, in 1933, Hitler organized a mass burning throughout Germany and Austria of all books reflecting an ‘un-German spirit.’ Many of them were Jewish works by Einstein, Freud, and others. The length of time between burning books and burning people was eight years.”

“The pessimists left Germany during the first years of Hitler’s power. The optimists died in the years following.”

Berenbaum says the first attacks were economic: wide-spread firing of Jews from public jobs (teachers, doctors, civil servants, and judges). The firings expanded until Jewish people were hardly able to find work.

“Soon bullying, harassment, and violence—dehumanizing actions—were directed against all Jews,” Berenbaum said.

The Nazis disguised their actions by subtly twisting language to veil their true intentions. “Resettlement in the east” really meant transporting men, women, and children to death camps that operated on an industrial scale 24-hours a day. “Final solution” meant genocide and slaughter.

“The pessimists left Germany during the first years of Hitler’s power,” said Berenbaum. “The optimists died in the years following. It wasn’t that Jews didn’t want to leave, but there weren’t many places to go.”

Nation after nation refused them safe haven. Then came Kristallnacht with its murders, looting, burning, and deportations to concentration camps.

November 10, 1938, is the only date Bonhoeffer marked in his Bible.

Almost universally, the world’s countries condemned Nazi brutality, yet few countries offered help. Adopting a policy of “none is too many to accept,” Canada turned its back on a boatload of fleeing Jewish refugees only months before the start of World War II. Hundreds of them (many of whom were children) died in Nazi death camps.

“Tonight we remember the cruelty of 80 years ago. We remember the outrage of the world that did not translate into helping desperate Jewish parents and children.”

The world-renowned German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer called the night of Kristallnacht “sheer violence” revealing Nazism’s “godless face”. In fact, November 10, 1938, is the only date Bonhoeffer marked in his Bible—next to Psalm 74:8, “They said in their hearts, let us plunder their goods! They burn all the houses of God in the land … Oh God, how long is the foe to scoff? How long will the enemy revile your name?”

Bonhoeffer was later executed in Flossenbürg concentration camp for his forceful opposition to Hitler and his incessant calls for the Church to take a stand.

Beyond remembering, Berenbaum brought a chilling message for today. He charged the crowd to be vigilant, here in Ottawa and beyond, and to be ready to stand against all forms of hatred and intolerance. Much of what Berenbaum discussed carried eerie echoes of the growing polarization in society today.

As Berenbaum stated, “The Holocaust did not begin in the gas chambers; it began with words.”