Berlin marks 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht amid rising antisemitism
Witnesses and police officials emphasize the need for historical education to prevent future persecution as Germany commemorates the 1938 pogrom.
By Oliver Bennett ·
Germany marked the 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht on Monday, recalling the Nazi-led attacks on Jewish communities that began on November 9, 1938. The commemoration coincides with a period of rising antisemitism in Germany and across the globe. Officials and survivors emphasized the urgent need for historical education to prevent such persecution from recurring.
George Shefi, 94, was six years old when the violence erupted. His mother kept him home for three days to protect him. When he finally went outside, his Jewish school inside a Berlin synagogue had been burned down. The Jewish hat store opposite his home had been looted, and the windows of the neighboring stationery shop were smashed. Shefi, who now lives in Jerusalem, returned to Berlin's Schoeneberg district to visit his childhood home.
Shefi recalled seeing the shop owner of the stationery store attempting to clean up the debris. Between 30 and 50 people jeered and yelled at him. According to Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, at least 91 people died during Kristallnacht. The violence resulted in the vandalism of 7,500 Jewish businesses and the targeting of more than 1,400 synagogues by arsonists.
Shefi said he kept his memories alive to help prevent future persecution. He noted that he used to hate Germans but reached a different conclusion about ten years ago. He believes that young people cannot be blamed for events that happened 80 years ago. He now speaks to school groups to share his experience. "You have to learn and study it because you aren’t responsible for what was, but you’ll be responsible in five, 10 years of what’s going to happen," Shefi said.
Kristallnacht represented a major escalation in Nazi persecution of Jews. It preceded the formal adoption of the Final Solution, which led to the systematic mass murder of six million European Jews. For Shefi, the night also ended his sheltered childhood. In July 1939, his mother placed him on a Kindertransport to England with 300 other Jewish children. He never saw her again. She was deported to Auschwitz and murdered in 1943.
Shefi shared his story with police officers visiting Berlin to deepen their understanding of the Holocaust. He was joined by Jochen Kopelke, chairman of the German Police Union. Kopelke said that many police officers in Germany do not know anything about Jewish life. He emphasized that officers protect synagogues but must also understand contemporary Jewish life and the police's role during the Third Reich.
"The police in the Nazi era actively took part in the Shoah, participated, guarded concentration camps, deported people," Kopelke said. He stated that all policemen have to know the history of the police. "And that’s why today you have to bring policemen to the real world in addition to the historical process," he added.
Phyllis Greenberg Heideman, president of the International March of the Living, said that Holocaust education is essential to combating rising antisemitism. The group organizes an annual remembrance event at Auschwitz. "It’s daunting, it’s difficult, and it’s the most important act any one of us can do," Greenberg Heideman said, referring to the fight against antisemitism and all forms of hatred. Shefi noted that his generation is the last that can tell what happened without anyone saying it is not true.
