Germany is marking the 80th anniversary of attacks on Jews that foreshadowed the Holocaust. November 9 has been a fateful date for Germany in other regards as well.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has called for “democratic patriotism” as the country commemorated three fateful moments of German history that occurred on a November 9.
In a speech to the Bundestag on Friday morning, Steinmeier said the date was “marked by ambivalence” for Germany.
“On November 9, we Germans remember both things – the light and the shadows of our history,” he told the chamber, referring to the Nazi Kristallnacht pogrom, or the Night of Broken Glass, of 1938, in which hundreds were killed and thousands of Jewish institutions were attacked.
Steinmeier was also present in Berlin’s New Synagogue later in the day, where Chancellor Angela Merkel and the president of the Central Committee of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, spoke on Friday at a commemoration of the 1938 progrom.
DW Politics ✔@dw_politics “I lack the words to describe #Kristallnacht,” says German Chancellor Merkel on the 80th anniversary of the Nazi pogrom. The state must “resolutely and consistently” fight against anti-Semitism, racism and exclusion, she added. 813 1:07 PM – Nov 9, 2018
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“I lack the words to describe #Kristallnacht,” says German Chancellor Merkel on the 80th anniversary of the Nazi pogrom.
The state must “resolutely and consistently” fight against anti-Semitism, racism and exclusion, she added.
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Like the president, Merkel used the speech to draw historical lessons, by emphasizing the pogrom’s place as part of a process of growing anti-Semitism in Germany that began with what would now be called hate speech and culminated with the systematic murder of Jewish people.
But she also warned that racism in Germany did not end in 1945. “If we look at the situation today, 80 years after the November pogroms, and almost 70 years after the foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany, then we see an ambiguous image,” she said. “There is a blooming Jewish life in Germany again, an unexpected gift after the disruption of civilization of the Shoah. But at the same time we see a worrying anti-Semitism, which threatens Jewish life in our country.”
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