Kristallnacht and Now

 This date, eighty-five years ago, was a turning point in world history, especially for the Jewish people. I see it as a Point of No Return. On that night, ordinary people accepted a call to violence against any and all Jews in Germany and Austria. I've read so many memoirs and seen awful photographs of that day: riots destroying synagogues and cemeteries, stones smashing storefronts. This was all accompanied by rapes and murders and the arrest of over 30,000 men.

Like many of the pogroms in Eastern Europe-- the kind of violence many of these people's parents and grandparents had left when moving to a more secular life in western Europe-- these coordinated attacks were blatant antisemitism. Kristallnacht was just on a much grander scale, and was not only condoned by the government but actually spurred on by Nazi government officials, supposedly as an act of retaliation for a 17-year-old Jewish boy's assassination of German diplomat.

It was clear that Jewish people were in mortal danger, but there was only a muted response from the world. The New York Times' first headline was simply: "Berlin Raids Reply to Death of Envoy", making it sound as it was a simple, localized cause-and-effect response. The next day, the Times boasted a slightly stronger headline, but one that also missed the mark: "Nazis Smash, Loot and Burn Jewish Shops and Temples Until Goebbels Calls Halt"; is this making Goebbels out to be the hero when he was part of the machinery that summoned such savagery?

Yes, there were rallies in support of the Jews of Germany. History clearly shows how minimal their effect was. Why? In part, I think the answer extends beyond simple antisemitism. I think it involves political and diplomatic caution. Leaders chose to tiptoe for their own stance both nationally and internationally. This was one of many tacit nods of approval granted to the Third Reich for their acts of violence and dehumanization. Germany went on to charge the Jewish population an "atonement tax" worth a billion Reichsmark (400 million dollars in 1938, about 730 million adjusted for inflation)--for the purpose of cleaning up the looting and destruction from that day!

Does one teenager's act of murder justify the savagery of hoards of rioters destroying homes and communities throughout the land? The answer, of course, is no. So what were the Jewish people to do? What was the world's obligation to respond? And what was actually possible to be done?

20/20 hindsight says "Get out of there!" In fact, many people had already left their homes in Germany and Austria at that point. Ironically, some had left to countries which soon would also be under Nazi control. Others stayed because it was their homeland, because the cost of leaving was too much (you couldn't take your life's earnings with you), or because there was no place to go. The Evian Conference just a few months before had made it perfectly clear that nobody (except the Dominican Republic) was willing to take on more refugees...especially Jewish ones.

I'm lucky. My family was already here. I grew up where there were definite acts of antisemitism, but I only felt physically threatened with what I would consider "ordinary" bullying (books thrown at me, skirt pulled down, hair pulled, stuffed in locker--but not with the anti-Jewish taunts.) The antisemitic stuff was more subtle-- like teachers saying "you're Jewish, you can teach the class about the Holocaust" or backhanded statements about money or nose sizes. I've worried about who would hide me, but I've never had to hide who I am. (Dad used to tell me not to write about being Jewish online. Mom used to be afraid Hitler was alive and hiding near her apartment in Brooklyn...and she worried there would be crosses burning on our yard if x, y or z happened...but you can't shut me up, Dad, and Mom's fears never proved to be a reality.) I've always felt a connection of gratitude to my ancestors because they moved here so I could have a free and fruitful life.

Not everybody was that lucky.

After the Holocaust, we came up with Geneva protocols and a Universal Declaration of Human Rights. International law became much more codified...and even so, it is impossible to uphold. Look at all the genocides and war crimes that have happened since then. Look at all the horror that is happening right now.

I understand more than most people why the Jewish people need a country where they can be free. If there had been a place for people to escape to, I don't think everyone would have left, but many, many more lives would have been saved. A culture would have been saved.

After the Holocaust, Israel was created as a nation. In the era leading up to the Holocaust, shiploads of Jewish people had moved to Palestine, and there were already territorial issues on that land. England had promised it both to the Arabs and to the Jews in order to gain support in WWI. Both populations had a long history on the land; both populations trace back to the same great-great-great-great etc. grandparents on that land. Part of went wrong is how the land ended up switching hands and how so much inhumanity and residue trauma was a part of that time period. Part of went wrong is how the existing nations took to politicize or ignore various existing or created refugee experiences at that time. So much of what went wrong is beyond my comprehension. How can one people's catastrophe be another people's salvation? How can we create a safe place for one people without harming another? I ask those questions rhetorically.

I just wish the homeland created for Jewish people to be safe from future pogroms was not a place where governments and terrorist groups would foment further hatred and violence.

When I think about the civilians killed in Hamas's October 7th raids, I can't help but think about Kristallnacht. Concertgoers, kibbutz dwellers, ordinary people....attacked, raped, killed, or dragged away as hostages. Unnecessary violence wrought upon ordinary people just for belonging to a certain culture....it is unconscionable.

At the same time, I think about the immense death toll that retaliation is taking-- the ordinary people in Gaza whose lives are being upended by the necessary but awful war response. How many more deaths will there be on both sides? When will this end? How will it end?

I wonder if the Jewish people had support in Germany in 1938, could they have made a response that would stop the Nazis from advancing to murdering 11 million people? If so, should there have been a response to nip the violence in the bud? I am a peace activist and everything in my gut says no! No! Violence does not call to violence. Courage calls to courage, yes, but not violence to violence. However.. what if we could have stopped it sooner?

Is this equivalent? No. There is and hopefully will never be an equivalence. But it is congruent. The scale may be different, but both share unilateral violence against a civilian population going about their daily lives. And unlike in the past, there are tools of recourse against such acts. Those tools involve diplomacy, military intervention, and immediate global human-to-human response.

What I'm seeing right now in the diplomatic arena is posturing, tiptoeing, and side-taking. This has the potential of becoming yet another proxy war with Russia and China opposing the US and all hell breaking loose (more than it already has.) I understand the caution, but I also think some of it comes from a general reluctance to side with either side. We live in a world of antisemitism and Islamophobia. This is a diplomatic live wire.

We're all witnessing horrific military intervention. I've been reading a lot about international law, especially in fear of the civilian deaths that are being dismissed by the Israelis as collateral damage. I am too sick to my stomach when I think about this to write much more on this topic. I don't think two wrongs make a right. I don't believe this is going to stop the conflict and be a death to end all deaths. I am deeply saddened and sharply horrified by it all. And yet, I also understand why a country can't just sit back and allow concertgoers to be ravaged. How did we respond after 9/11? (Hint: not well, but not altogether differently. We just bombed countries with "shock and awe" campaigns...countries that weren't directly linked to the terrorists on the hijacked planes...)

This leaves us with one other recourse: global human-to-human response. Our tools for communication are so much stronger than they were at Kristallnacht. We can email or text our congresspeople. We can use translation tools to connect with people who speak different languages. We can see photos and listen to videos of people half a world away, and we can zoom with friends far and wide.

What is NOT okay is using these tools to separate people further. I am deeply disheartened by the increase of antisemitism both linked and unlinked to these attacks. I'm sad about the way college campuses are so divided and how youth are finding ways to fight apart from one another rather than to come together. I'm scared about the existing information bubbles we already have and how misinformation can breed further contempt of one group for another. We need a human-to-human response that connects rather than distances. We need to squash hatred in all its forms: racism, bigotry, antisemitism, homophobia, Islamophobia, ableism and so much more. We need to foster lovingkindness and mutual support. We need to support friendship.

I had dinner the other night with one of my close friends. She is Persian American and her significant other moved here from Palestine when he was a tween. He had significant trauma from a run-in with the Israeli Defense Forces as a kid. We all come from different worlds but we can talk with one another about the issues. We can listen to podcasts and learn songs and understand a bit more with each contact.

One such friendship isn't going to change the world-- although over the years, it certainly has changed MY world. But many such conversations where we humanize one another and we learn from one another -- this may make a difference.

In the meanwhile, take a moment and look at the people and animals around you. Look at the books and the pictures and the curtains and chatchkes that are normal parts of your life. Look out the window at the stars and listen for the last remaining crickets. Any of this can change so quickly. If it happened then, if it happened there...it could happen here. Love, love, love...notice it all. And then do whatever you can to spread that love far and wide.

All rea