Major General Maurice Rose Post 51 Jewish War Veterans will mark the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht in a special program on Sunday, Nov. 10, at 5 p.m. The event will be held at Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek, 55 E. Kingshighway, in Chester.
Kristallnacht means the “Night of Broken Glass.” On Nov. 9, 1938, in Nazi Germany and in parts of Austria, synagogues, schools, cemeteries, hospitals, and businesses were destroyed and set on fire. The next day, 35,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps.
In the coordinated attack, 1,000 synagogues were burned (95 in Vienna alone) and 7,000 Jewish businesses destroyed or damaged. Historian Martin Gilbert writes that no event in the history of German Jews between 1933 and 1945 was so widely reported as it was happening, and accounts from foreign journalists working in Germany sent shock waves around the world. The New York Times wrote at the time: “No foreign propagandist bent upon blackening Germany before the world could outdo the tale of burnings and beatings, of blackguardly assaults on defenseless and innocent people, which disgraced that country yesterday.”
The program will highlight German history leading up to the beginning of the Holocaust, as well as life in the U.S. at the time. Kristallnacht was followed by additional economic and political persecution of Jews. It is viewed by historians as part of Nazi Germany’s broader racial policy, and the beginning of the Final Solution and the Holocaust.
A deli dinner will be served at the program. Reservations may be made by sending a check for $18, payable to “JWV Post 51.” Mail to: Kevin Fox, 304 Colt Highway, #30, Farmington CT 06032.