71 years ago today, the "beginning" of the overt and obvious Nazi intolerance of the Jews took place; Kristallnacht. 20 years ago today the Berlin Wall fell. Book-end anniversaries in Germany. One the first step toward the Holocaust, the other the beginning of the end of the communist block states which grew out of WW2. Odd coincidence n'est pas?
hmm, I didn't know that both took place on the same date.... very interesting. Gosh, imagine being in Berlin right now taking in all this history. Suzie.
What a sad that must have been for all of the Jews that where effected. From reading about that day about 25,000 Jews where rounded up and send to the concentration camps where they were often brutalized by SS guards and in some cases randomly chosen to be beaten to death. In Germany, on November 12, top Nazis, including Hermann Göring and Joseph Goebbels, held a meeting concerning the economic impact of the damage and to discuss further measures to be taken against the Jews. SS leader Reinhard Heydrich reported 7500 businesses destroyed, 267 synagogues burned (with 177 totally destroyed) and 91 Jews killed. Heydrich requested new decrees barring Jews from any contact with Germans by excluding them from public transportation, schools, even hospitals, essentially forcing them into ghettos or out of the country. Goebbels said the Jews would be made to clean out the debris from burned out synagogues which would then be turned into parking lots. At this meeting it was decided to eliminate Jews entirely from economic life in the Reich by transferring all Jewish property and enterprises to 'Aryans,' with minor compensation given to the Jews in the form of bonds. Regarding the economic impact of the damage from Kristallnacht and the resulting massive insurance claims, Hermann Göring stated the Jews themselves would be billed for the damage and that any insurance money due to them would be confiscated by the State. "I shall close the meeting with these words," said Göring, "German Jewry shall, as punishment for their abominable crimes, et cetera, have to make a contribution for one billion marks. That will work. The swine won't commit another murder. Incidentally, I would like to say that I would not like to be a Jew in Germany." November 9/10 1938 - Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass
