Intro to Kristallnacht,
2016
Edited by John R.
Houk
By Ari Bussel
Posted November 13,
2016
Have you heard of the Kristallnacht?
My guess is if you are younger than a Baby Boomer (and probably a significant amount of Boomers too), you have no clue
what the word Kristallnacht represents.
Kristallnacht is
German for "NIGHT OF BROKEN GLASS". That horrendous night came on
November 9, 1938 aimed at Jews:
…
violence against Jews broke out across the Reich. It appeared to be unplanned,
set off by Germans' anger over the assassination of a German official in Paris
at the hands of a Jewish teenager. In fact, German propaganda minister Joseph
Goebbels and other Nazis carefully organized the pogroms. In two days, over 250
synagogues were burned, over 7,000 Jewish businesses were trashed and looted,
dozens of Jewish people were killed, and Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, schools,
and homes were looted while police and fire brigades stood by. The pogroms
became known as Kristallnacht, the "Night of Broken
Glass," for the shattered glass from the store windows that littered the
streets.
Now that those of you who were unaware are updated this
submission by Ari Bussel should have more meaning. Ari is a descendant of
Holocaust Survivors. He attended his first remembrance event at annual
conference held in California on the anniversary of Kristallnacht.
Ari writes of how few Holocaust survivors were at this
annual event largely because of age. He notices that some of the other
attendees were quite inconsiderate to the few survivors in attendance as if
they forgot the significance of the reasons to remember that around SIX MILLION
Jews were slaughtered by Nazi Germans.
Ari also spends a little time pointing out there is NO moral
equivalence between Jews fleeing the Nazis and Syrian Muslims fleeing
ISIS/Assad. The Syrian refugees are primarily Sunni. They may be fleeing the effects
of war, but they are fleeing from a regime that hates their existence as the
Jews did fleeing Nazis. Leftist err in vainly trying to make that moral equivalence.
JRH 11/13/16
**********************
Kristallnacht, 2016
By Ari Bussel
Sent 11/9/2016 5:10
PM
“And you will be mad of the sight of your eyes which you will see”
(Deuteronomy 28:34)
“And your life shall hang before you, and you will fear night and day
and will have no assurances of your life.
In the morning you will wish it be evening, and in the evening you will
say may it be morning, for the fear of your heart which you will fear and the
sight of your eyes which you will see.”
(ibid:66-67)
It was a November night in 1938, a night that would be
remembered ever after as the Night of Broken Glass. Jews were no longer safe in Europe.
The 1939 Club –
Members Now Extinct
Some years ago, Jews and Christians working together in
defense of their shared values had an event at the exclusive Hillcrest Country Club
in Los Angeles.
The event was held by the Israel Christian Nexus and sponsored
by the 1939 Club (today the 1939 Society).
I remember entering the room designated for our event, alongside Pastor
John Hagee of Christians United for
Israel.
Our hosts, members of the Los Angeles based 1939 Club, were
seated at tables. What I clearly
remember are not the individual faces, just the fact they were all very old,
very frail and dressed up so elegantly as if they came from a different
world. I do not remember canes or
walkers, but the image of people hardly able to stand or walk has been etched
deeply in my mind.
Small people. People
who, if one dares touch them most gently, might turn to dust or fog and
disappear. Appearing as a figment of
imagination, or perhaps a prop? Clearly,
they did not seem real, making the entire event both surreal and holy.
The 1939 Club was supporting many causes at that time and
doing so most generously. Their money had
to be put to good use, and they were there observing, stewards and guardians.
They were not checking, micromanaging or overseeing and gave most generously, no questions asked. Rather they were a living testament to an awful era, and their task, with plentiful means was: Do whatever is necessary to ensure such evil happens “Never Again!”
I saw small, little, frail individuals from whom intense
will and determination emanated. Powered
by the means to do good, educate, influence, teach, instill courage, fight and ensure
continuity, they focused on the task at hand, for it was apparent to everyone that
time was of the essence. Time was
running out, yet the obligation was as formidable as always.
These were the survivors, and I am told not one of them is
here with us today. How is it
possible? Simple: My parents were young children during the
Holocaust. The members of the 1939 Club
were at least 20 years older, thus, they would be nearing 100 today.
Like them, other survivors are all disappearing. On October 28th, Sol Berger z”l,
would have turned 97. He passed away on
Rosh Hashana, three and a half weeks earlier.
His younger friend, Joe Davis celebrated his 96th birthday on
November 7th and his wife turned 92 on the very same day.
Sol z”l, a member of the Partisans, and Joe and his wife are
three of several Holocaust survivors I know and dare to call my friends. Julius with a number tattooed on his hand and
Leslie, saved by Raul Wallenberg, are two other survivors. They all reside at the same “retirement home,”
and I am privileged and most blessed to be with them every Shabbat.
Remembering the
Holocaust – Annual Events
Year after year, my friend Lily Steiner invites me to the
annual Kristallnacht Commemoration event at Loyola Marymount University in Los
Angeles. Year after year I promise to
go, but something always comes up, and I never had; until this year. Lily came back from Australia especially for
me to join her, and I am so grateful I did.
The 10th annual event now joins Dr. Joel
Geiderman’s annual event at Cedar Sinai Medical Center as a “must attend” event
on my calendar.
Dr. Geiderman is the co-chair of the Emergency Department at
Cedar Sinai and for some three decades has brought thousands of doctors, nurses
and staff, alongside community members and Holocaust survivors for the annual
lunch-and-lecture.
At Loyola I discovered some of the same elements: faculty and staff, community members and
students. Students, young, oh so young
and impressionable, yet eager to hear and learn.
While at Cedar Sinai the number of survivors dwindles down
every year, there are still some.
Sol z”l, Joe and his wife, Leslie and Julius, as well as
Irene (“I am 94, I survived the Holocaust and I am blind!”) all reside two
blocks away from the hospital, yet there has been no effort to send someone and
bring them and other Holocaust survivors who are alive and live nearby to the
event. Apparently this extra effort is
beyond necessity. It will be a “feel good”
and fulfilling event anyway, so why bother.
At Loyola I found no more survivors. The Director of Jewish Studies responsible
for the ten annual commemoration events explained that the date was set a very
long time in advance and happened to clash with a long weekend for Holocaust
survivors, who were too exhausted to attend.
There was, though, one elderly woman with a walker who fit
the age. The intensity of her look
convinced me she was a survivor, but I did not ask. When the film screening started, she was
unable to see from the place she was seated.
It was too far away.
I brought two chairs for her and her companion, likely her
daughter. A lady from the back came toward
us, shouting, “you cannot sit here we will not be able to see!”
Not only was she very far back, the elderly lady could not
have blocked her line of sight. To be at
a Holocaust memorial event and show not the tiniest iota of kindness begs the
question, why does one even bother to show up?
The lady without compassion could have moved her chair two inches
to the right or the left, as there was so much space. But she decided to be confrontational toward
a person much older and so much more fragile than she.
And we ask ourselves, how could a nation so intelligent, so cultured and advanced as Germany in the early 1930s become so evil? We wonder if it can happen again, if we could have partaken in the same madness.
The answer apparently is yes. As human beings we do not find in our hearts
to be kind, to try, to overcome the urge to “go and make a scene,” “complain!” and
insist “she must not sit in front.” Instead, we behave in such an inconsiderate
and loathsome manner.
Such untoward behavior at a Kristallnacht Commemoration
event is tragic. Oh, the person must be
so proud! She disappeared quickly before
the last credits were shown, skipping the reception. I was actually looking for her, to take her
picture. How people who look “normal”
and “cultured” can turn so ugly and evil.
Refugees
Following the screening of “Jan Karski & the Lords of
Humanity” about the Polish Karski who was assigned to inform the world of the
Nazis exterminating the Jews, a panel response with the director allowed
Q&A.
In a most vivid discussion about refugees, the survivors and
the world’s reaction to them were compared to the modern-day Syrian refugees
crisis.
Remember, my friend Lily and I were seated among some 120
people we did not know. I am among the very
few children of Holocaust survivors who were in the audience, and my friend
Lily is a fierce fighter for Israel and the West.
I am thinking about the students, those young,
impressionable minds, who experienced no war or real threat in their lifetimes,
hearing from two prominent and very respected individuals (a professor and a film
director) that Holocaust survivors, like my mother who managed to arrive illegally
to Palestine then under British Mandate, or my father who managed to arrive to Israel
after the formation of the modern state, are very like today’s Syrian refugees
in Europe or those being admitted to the USA by the Obama administration.
I am livid. I am
ready to explode. I boil. Just moments earlier we all watched footage
from the Warsaw Ghetto. My father was
there until his escape. And now, I am
told that he is very much the same as those purportedly escaping their brethren
in Syria?
Those who are dressed nicer than I am? Who demand where they prefer to live? Many among whom rape and grope German women? Or perpetrate horrific terrorist attacks
against their new home countries? Who
have fake passports and ulterior motives to infiltrate and overtake Western
civilization?
Or maybe the “similarities” can be found in the fact that
the Arab world, other than Jordan, does nothing to aid the Syrians? Indeed, the Jews of America during WWII
behaved in much the same way. But how can
anyone compare the Muslims to Holocaust survivors?
Lily raised her hand, was given a microphone and very
politely but powerfully contested the corrupt “moral equivalency” presented.
The same fake equivalency was shown in Spielberg’s movie “Munich.”
And the same has happened time after time when the world
compares Israel and Gaza’s Hamas. “So
many dead among the Gazans; so few among the Israelis – Israel is at fault! Israel is the evil-doer, not Hamas and the
non-stop, non-discriminating barrage of rockets it unleashes against the
Israeli population!”
Celebrating the
Holocaust, Appeasing Our Senses
It seems that seven decades after the end of WWII, as
Holocaust survivors are disappearing and their voices become too frail and hard
to hear, we are creating our own notions of the Holocaust.
We have annual commemorations where we forget the most basic
decency.
We bring politics and similar baggage to higher education
institutions, and professors utilize the classrooms and their students as
breeding grounds for indoctrination.
We allow anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiments, so prevalent nowadays, to pervade every fabric of our being. Many of the detractors are Jewish. Some even are Israelis. And we do not really need any enemies. The Arabs understood it all long ago, a simple lesson: Leave the Jews to their own bidding, and they will destroy themselves.
Apparently, we will continue to “celebrate” the Holocaust,
with more movies and stories, now done by members of the second generation who were
not there but only witnessed the Holocaust via their parents or grandparents,
the living remnants of the Holocaust.
We do not do the simplest deed that requires effort, like going
out of our way to bring a Holocaust survivor, since we live in a different day
and age.
Today the Holocaust does not really matter, except when we see
a movie that manages to touch us, and we leave convinced “we remember,” and
even that “we did something good by simply watching a movie.”
Can the same evil happen again? Undoubtedly.
So what was Kristallnacht in 1938? What happened in Europe from 1933—1945? What started on September 1st,
1933?
Judging by the behavior of too many…a whole lot of nothing.
___________________
This is the latest
in the series “Postcards from America –
Postcards from Israel,” a collaboration between Zager and Bussel, a foreign
correspondent reporting from Israel.
Ari Bussel and Norma Zager collaborate both in writing and on the
air in a point-counter-point discussion of all things Israel-related. Together, they have dedicated the past
decade to promoting Israel.
© Israel Monitor,
November, 2016
First Published November
8, 2016
Contact: bussel@me.com
No comments:
Post a Comment