85 years ago: Terror against Jewish life in Germany

85 years ago: Terror against Jewish life in Germany

Commemoration of the November 1938 pogroms

On the night of 9 to 10 November 1938, over 1,200 Jewish places of worship were burned in the German Reich. The state anti-Semitism, which had been systematically increased by the Nazi regime since 1933, broke out in an inhuman form. Synagogues, houses of prayer and other Jewish institutions in towns and villages were ravaged by flames. Thousands of Jewish homes and businesses were vandalised and looted. Jewish children, women and men were hunted down, humiliated and abused in front of their neighbours. More than a thousand Jewish Germans perished. Around 30,000 men were deported to concentration camps.

The November pogroms - long trivialised in the vernacular as "Kristallnacht" - marked a turning point for Jewish life in Germany. It all happened in public, in the midst of German society. It was not possible to look away.

85 years after the terrible pogroms, we are experiencing a wave of anti-Semitism and hostility towards Jews worldwide and unfortunately also in Germany. We do not want to and must not remain silent: "Never again is now!" The memory of the six million victims of the Holocaust obliges us in Germany to speak out. We stand by the people of Israel and our Jewish neighbours and friends in support and solidarity.