| Germany commemorates “Kristallnacht”
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Michel Friedman, member of the German Jewish Agency Board
Photo: EJP
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Protest speeches, silent marches, wreath laying ceremonies, cultural activities dotted the German landscape in commemoration of the 67th anniversary of the Reichs “Kristallnacht” or “night of broken glass.”
In the night of 9 to 10 November 1938, Jewish stores were plundered, over 1,000 synagogues set ablaze and thousands of Jews were deported to concentration camps in what was the first public, large-scale attack on Jews in Germany during the Nazi period.
“Everybody says that they did not know what was really happening to the Jews. But by 9 November 1938, nobody can claim that,” lawyer Michel Friedman, a popular personality within Germany’s Jewish community, told a crowd of several hundred people in Berlin on Wednesday.
“If before that date, Germany was laden with passive followers, after that date, those followers, knowingly or unknowingly became accomplices. After 9 November, nobody could claim any longer that they did not know what was happening,” Friedman, who is a member of the Jewish Agency Board, added.
Anti-Semitism still alive
Crowds gathered throughout Germany to honor the victims of Nazi terror.
Protest speeches such as Friedman’s were held in front of Europe’s largest department store – founded in the early 20th century by Jews – around the corner of Germany’s largest shoe store chain – also founded, before the war, by Jews.
“We have to be here today to protest what happened 67 years ago, because racism in Germany prevails to this date. We have to fight anti-democratic tendencies, racism and anti-Semitism wherever it shows its face,” Albert Meyer, the outgoing head of Berlin’s Jewish community, told the same crowd.
In his hometown of Duesseldorf, Paul Spiegel, President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told a crowd that “one hundred thousand Jews in Germany is proof that we are no longer sitting on packed suitcases. It shows that we have arrived at a point where we trust the underlying democratic structure of the Federal Republic.
“Despite this, Jews in Germany are still part of a persecuted minority. Over 4,000 acts of violent rightwing activity took place between 2000 and 2005. Even if in a totally different dimension, racism and anti-Semitism are a norm in Germany today,” he said.
Combatting extremism
Germany’s incoming coalition government between Christian Democrats and Social Democrats said on Wednesday it would take up an appeal from a collection of civil rights groups to make the fight against anti-Semitism a priority in its manifesto, Agence France Presse reported.
It agreed on 9 November to commemorate the “Kristallnacht” anniversary, taking up a petition by the “Forum Berlin”, a non-governmental lobby group.
On the occasion of the “Kristallnacht” anniversary, “Forum Berlin” called on the German government to be more courageous and to ensure that “the respect of human rights and the fight against any form of extremism be given a higher profile in its foreign policy objectives”.
It also asked the government to introduce new measures such as publishing a yearly report on anti-Semitism.
The appeal met with support from both parties in the coalition government to be led by conservative leader Angela Merkel which is due to complete negotiations on its policy programme by Saturday.
The parties have agreed "to ensure the respect of human rights and to fight any form of extremism, also from the leftwing," Maria Eichhorn, the spokesman for family issues for the Christian Democratic Union, told the Tagesspiegel newspaper.
"It is an important sign that both parties support initiatives that fight rightwing extremism," said Kerstin Griese, who speaks on family issues for the Social Democrats.
The NGO Forum Berlin includes the Central Council of Jews in Germany and the American Jewish Committee.
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