Jews to mark Kristallnacht tomorrow
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- November
- 7
Jews in Rockland will tomorrow gather on the steps of the Rockland County Courthouse for a solemn candlelight vigil to mark Kristallnacht, which is viewed as the first step toward to the Holocaust.
Kristallnacht, or the “Night of Broken Glass,” refers to the Nov. 9-10, 1938, pogrom that was ordered by the Nazis. Throughout Germany and Austria, thousands of synagogues, Jewish institutions and businesses were burned and destroyed.
The nights’ hostilities were prompted by the Nov. 7 shooting of Ernst vom Rath. The German official was shot in Paris by 17-year-old Herschel Grynszpan, a Jew who was angry about his parents’ deportation from Germany to Poland.
When vom Rath died two days later, Nazi officials used the incident as an excuse for security forces and others to go on a rampage.
Thousands of Jews were beaten, shot or deported to concentration camps.
Some local Jews were in Germany or Austria at the time of Kristallnacht, and have told their stories before audiences at the Holocaust Museum and Study Center in Spring Valley, as well as at other venues.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 at 7:05 pm by Suzan Clarke.
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