On Thursday, Germany commemorates 85 years since the so-called Kristallnacht, when the Nazis unleashed an anti-Jewish pogrom in Germany on the night of November 9-10, 1938.
The piets are being held in the shadow of an attack by the terrorist Palestinian movement Hamas, which infiltrated Israel in October, murdering 1,400 people and taking 239 others hostage to the Gaza Strip. The Jewish state responded with shelling and a military operation in the zone. Demonstrations in support of the Palestinians have been repeatedly held in Germany since then, which often turn into anti-Semitic and violent actions.
“Any form of anti-Semitism is poison to our society,” Scholz said at a piet at a Berlin synagogue that was targeted by a firebomb attack in October. He emphasized that the promise “Never again”, with which post-war democratic Germany undertook to prevent a repeat of the Holocaust, must be fulfilled precisely in these difficult times.
Kristallnacht 85 years ago unleashed anti-Jewish hell
Photo: John MacDougall, CTK/AP
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz with a yarmulke on his head during a commemorative ceremony for the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht held at Beth Zion Synagogue in Berlin.
“I am ashamed that, after centuries of oppression, Jews still face exclusion in Germany, which committed the Shoah,” Scholz said of the Holocaust and the country’s current displays of anti-Semitism. He noted that he is outraged by such behavior and that those who hold such views must be held accountable.
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“Everyone must know that anti-Semitism risks their residence status,” he said, referring to Germany’s immigrant society. People of immigrant origin are often behind the current anti-Semitic manifestations in Germany.
Scholz also promised that Germany would push for the release of hostages taken by Hamas during the October attack on Israel. “Germany will do everything, everything, to get the abductees back home,” added the chancellor.
The date of November 9 is fateful for Germany, as Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has stated in the past. In addition to the so-called Kristallnacht in 1938, the republic was proclaimed on this day in 1918 and the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989.
Because of the war in Gaza, hatred against Jews has risen worldwide
Anti-Semitism is a negative attitude, even hatred towards Jews or the Jewish faith (Judaism). The origin of the word dates back to the 19th century, it was probably first used in 1860 by the Jewish scholar Moritz Steinschneider in the phrase anti-Semitic prejudices in connection with the ideas of the French philosopher Ernest Renan about the superiority of the Aryan race over the Semitic.
Later, the term appeared in German nationalist literature and was directed exclusively against people of Jewish origin or faith, although it ostensibly refers to Semites in general. The term Semite (derived from the biblical Shem) is a designation for peoples speaking a Semitic language, i.e. Hebrew or Arabic, for example. Due to the historical development of the term anti-Semitism, Arabs can paradoxically be called anti-Semites, even though they are Semites themselves.
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