Frost in the air this morning, breath visible as icy puff while crunching through the thin layer on some standing water. It has gotten cold, enough so that hat, jacket, gloves are needed by the sensible to maintain warmth.
What did they have for protection, those Jews 72 years ago on Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass when dragged from their homes and places of business as their lives were smashed around them. A young man’s pain triggering off retaliation beyond what any could imagine. Most of us were not alive then, prior to WWII when that pogrom propgated throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on November 9–10, 1938 agains the Jewish population.
Tonight we remember with memorial services, politicians speeches, and quiet saying of Kaddish.
Here, on a US base in Afghanistan, a country with a long and bloody history, I wonder. “Holy Wars” are still be perpetrated by fanatics, other groups use religion as an excuse to conduct the massacres which they want for economic, political or social reasons. Germany has learned and does not forget. I am not sure that the rest of us can claim the same.
It hurts to remember. It hurts worse if we forget.
Shalom
It caught my breath away to read the post title. Has it really been that long since it happened? May we ever remember to learn of the ways in which we are all part of humanity, and may we never, never forget.
Kristallnacht, essentially a beautiful word which now can only stand for such sickening horror, never to be forgotten. How sad that so much hatred and violence still exists in our world. Shalom.
Words can’t express….you’ve said it all.
Shivers. Others have said it better. Me, I’m just shivering at the thought.