Krystallnacht - 75 years later

"An Ornament of our city"

Today is the 75th anniversary of Krystallnacht - "the night of the broken glass."  It was the outbreak of mass violence against Jews which was to end in their mass murder.  It is considered the official beginning of the holocaust.

The ruins of the synagogue, 1938

On the night of 9-10 November, 1938, in Darmstadt, the synagogue, which was proclaimed an "Ornament of the city" in 1886, was burned to the ground.  Darmstadt was the first city in Germany to force Jewish shops to close in early 1933, shortly after the Nazis took power in Germany.   In 1942, over 3,000 Jews from Darmstadt were first forced into a collection camp located in the Liebigschule, and later deported to concentration camps where most eventually died.In 1988, on the 50th anniversary of Krystallnacht, the city of Darmstadt presented a new synagogue to the Jewish community.  It stands as the only replacement synagogue in Germany that was paid for by the local citizens of the city.

In recent days in Darmstadt,  "Stolpersteine", or "stumbling blocks" have been dug up from sidewalks. Stolpersteinen are paving stones, which are used universally here for sidewalks, that are covered with a layer of brass upon which has been engraved the name and information about a person who was forced from their home during the holocaust.  They serve as poignant memorials to Jews from our neighborhood who were driven from the city and later killed in a camp.

The new synagogue, a few blocks from our flat.

Last night, some of those stolen stones were used to break windows in the city hall of Seeheim-Jungenheim,  a city just a few kilometers from Darmstadt.  The holocaust is, not surprisingly, still a source of deep pain for Germans and for Germany - but while there is deep regret, sorrow and shame for many, there is also ever-present evil.  Chancellor Angela Merkel called for police protection for every synagogue and Jewish center in the land on this day, to insure that those filled with hate would be hindered from violence, and the innocent would be safe.

Such is the legacy of unchecked evil.  This is the toll paid when the righteous and the moral do nothing in the face of the evil and the corrupt.

A Stolperstein a few meters from our flat.

Psalm 59:
1 Deliver me from my enemies, O God; protect me from those who rise up against me. 2 Deliver me from evildoers and save me from bloodthirsty men. 3 See how they lie in wait for me! Fierce men conspire against me for no offense or sin of mine, O LORD. 4 I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me. Arise to help me; look on my plight!
16 But I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble. 17 O my Strength, I sing praise to you; you, O God, are my fortress, my loving God.