November 9, 2008 marked the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the spin-doctoredly termed “Night of Broken Glass” across Nazi Germany. The pogrom saw the wanton destruction of Jewish shops, synagogues and property, and the beating, assault, and arrest of thousands of Jews. With the world’s silence, it also became the nail in the coffin of European Jewry and allowed the Nazis to move forward to their Final Solution.

The New York Times in its report, wrote almost surreally, but, sadly with underestimation, that “It is assumed that the Jews, who have now lost most of their possessions and livelihood, will either be thrown into the streets or put into ghettos and concentration camps, or impressed into labor brigades and put to work for the Third Reich, as the children of Israel were once before for the Pharaohs.”

May we, and the sometimes too silent world, remember Kristallnacht, the six million, and learn the appropriate lessons.

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