On November 9-10, 1938, the Nazis unleashed a series of violent pogroms – state-sanctioned anti-Jewish riots – against the Jews in Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland. In the space of a few hours, rioters burned or destroyed 267 synagogues, vandalized or looted 7,500 Jewish businesses, and killed at least 91 Jewish people. They also damaged many Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, schools, and homes, as police and fire brigades stood aside. For the first time, tens of thousands of Jews were sent to concentration camps simply because they were Jewish.  This event came to be called Kristallnacht — “The Night of Broken Glass” — for the shattered windowpanes that carpeted the streets in the aftermath of the pogroms. Kristallnacht was an essential turning point in Nazi Germany’s persecution of Jews; a significant event that would culminate in the Holocaust—the systematic, state-sponsored mass murder of European Jewry.

Where is Kristallnacht?

By Cindy Mindell

Yom HaShoah – Holocaust Memorial Day or Holocaust Day – was inaugurated in Israel in 1953, signed into law by then-Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and the President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, and marked every year since on 27 Nisan. The day was originally planned to coincide with the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, 14 Nisan, which was deemed too close to the beginning of Pesach.

Many Jewish communities and government bodies throughout the world mark the day with services and educational programs; the annual March of the Living starts out on that day with a memorial service in Auschwitz. American Jewish communities first started memorializing the Holocaust in the ‘70s, with Hartford and New Haven among the first in the country to erect public monuments.

Memorial services – especially of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising – were held by individual American Jewish congregations and organizations during and immediately following World War II. (See “We Remember with Reverence and Love: American Jews and the Myth of Silence After the Holocaust,” 1945-1962 by New York University scholar Hasia Diner.) But unlike Yom HaShoah, Kristallnacht is not an official observance in Israel, and has a different role and heft in the collective American-Jewish memory. Less common on the Jewish community calendar, a commemorative event often echoes the tone and content of a Yom HaShoah program. This year, despite the significant anniversary of the pogrom, it seems as if only a handful of Connecticut Jewish communities are marking the day.

Dr. Rafael Medoff

Although there were scattered local ceremonies around the country marking the anniversary of Kristallnacht as early as the 1950s, major commemoration ceremonies in the United States really began in conjunction with the fortieth anniversary, in 1978, says Rafael Medoff, director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

That year was a turning point in Holocaust awareness in the U.S., Medoff explains: “In April, NBC-TV broadcast the miniseries “Holocaust,” which 120 million people viewed in part or in whole. In May, President [Jimmy] Carter announced the establishment of a commission to begin planning the U.S. Holocaust museum. That same month, Prof. David Wyman ignited a nationwide discussion with his famous article in Commentary magazine, ‘Why Auschwitz Was Never Bombed.’ It was also a year of revelations about Nazi war criminals hiding in the United States, and the enactment of Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman’s bill to facilitate their deportation. The release of the film ‘The Boys from Brazil,’ even though it was fictional, helped keep the issue of Nazi war criminals in the spotlight. These developments all contributed to the Jewish community’s growing interest in commemorating Kristallnacht as the 40th anniversary approached in November 1978.”

Is Kristallnacht now fading from the American-Jewish calendar?

“I’ve not undertaken a systematic survey of commemoration practices, so I’ve not noticed whether this is true,” says Alan Steinweis, professor of history and Miller Distinguished Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont (UVM), where he also serves as director of the Center for Holocaust Studies. Steinweiss is on leave from UVM through January 2015, teaching at the University of Munich. Among his many books focusing on the history of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, Steinweis is author of Kristallnacht 1938 (Harvard University Press, 2009).

“This year, at least, there are quite a few observances of Kristallnacht, owing, of course, to the 75th anniversary. It could well be that attention to the event tends to rise on round-numbered anniversaries, then falls again until five years later,” he says.

There are several systematic studies on the place of Kristallnacht in the “memory culture” of the Holocaust in Germany, Steinweis says, but he is not aware of any such surveys in the U.S.

Steinweis notes that the degree to which Jewish communities mark events related to the Holocaust may be a consideration of scale and scope. “I can certainly imagine that, in the collective memory of the Holocaust in many Jewish communities,  Kristallnacht features less prominently than the larger-scale and more lethal atrocities that occurred later,” he says. “Jews in Poland and other places did not experience  Kristallnacht directly, and what they did experience directly was a good deal worse. So among the survivors – and their families, and their congregations – the focus tends to be more on the camps, ghettos, death marches, etc.”

Residents in Graz, Austria, watch as the Jewish cemetery’s ceremonial hall burns during Kristallnacht.
Courtesy of Dokumentationsarchiv des Oesterreichischen Widerstandes

CALENDAR OF KRISTALLNACHT COMMEMORATION EVENTS THROUGHOUT CONNECTICUT

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8 – SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9

Bridgeport – “Kristallnacht – 75 Years Later”; Andree Lotey will discuss the story of Aristides de Sousa Mendez, Portugal’s consul in Bordeaux who provided 30,000 people with Portuguese visas, enabling them to escape Nazi persecution on Friday evening services at 6 p.m., followed by dinner and program at 7:15 p.m.; and a screening of the award-winning film “Disobedience: The Sousa Mendez Story,” on Saturday, 4 p.m.; Congregation B’nai Israel, 2710 Park Ave.,  (203) 336-1858.

Sherman – Kristallnacht commemoration featuring a screening of the documentary “Nicholas Winton – The Power of Good,” winner of the 2002 Intenational Emmy Award, about Nicholas Winton, who saved 669 children from the Nazis; coffee and dessert; 7 p.m.; JCC in Sherman, 9 Rte 39 South, (860) 355-8050, jccinsherman@gmail.com. FREE

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9

West Hartford – Archeology and the Holocaust Symposium, “70 Years after the Sobibor Revolt: Special Kristallnacht Program,” with Yoram Haimi, chief archaeologist of the Sobibor Excavations Project, 7 p.m., Wilde Auditorium, Harry Jack Gray Center, University of Hartford, (860) 768-4228. Seating is limited.

West Hartford – “Never Let It Happen,” a new musical play in memory of Kristallnacht presented by Cantor Pamela Siskin’s Spiritual Theater Group; written by Cantor Siskin, musical direction by Natasha Ulyanovsky, the play is based on the children’s book Star of Fear, Star of Hope (although the production is not geared for children); refreshments and discussion to follow; 7:30 p.m.; Congregation Beth Israel, 701 Farmington Ave., (860) 233-8215 x2320, www.cbict.org.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 10

Chester – “Remembering Kristallnacht,” marking the 75th anniversary of the “Night of Broken Glass,” hosted by the Jewish War Veterans’ Major General Maurice Rose Post 51 of Middletown; performance and readings written by Norman Hanenbaum of Haddam, read by members of the Jewish War Veterans; full kosher deli buffet; 5 p.m., at Cong. Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek, 55 W. Kings Highway, (860) 345-2191, enbaum@comcast.net. $18, reservations a must by Nov. 4. No walk-ins.

Hartford – A remembrance of Kristallnacht – the Night of Broken Glass; dance, music and ritual; light dinner to follow; 5:30 p.m.; Charter Oak Cultural Center, 21 Charter Oak Ave., (860) 310-2480, charteroakcenter.org. FREE

Stamford – Sarah Lew Miller, former Stamford resident and author of Hiding in Plain Sight: Eluding the Nazis in Occupied France, will speak at the Kristallnacht 75th anniversary commemoration co-sponsored by the Jewish Historical Society of Fairfield County and the Stamford JCC; 1:30 p.m. (refreshments at 1 p.m.); at the JCC, 1035 Newfield Ave., (203) 359-9148, elissa@de-kaplan.com. FREE

West Hartford – Veterans Day and 75th Anniversary of Kristallnacht program; honoring Jewish veterans from throughout Greater Hartford, and featuring a talk by Abby Weiner, a child survivor of the Holocaust; honor guard, roll call and musical tributes from the Beth El Choir; dessert reception; sponsored by Beth El Temple, and B’nai Tikvoh-Sholom; 2 p.m.; at Beth El, 2626 Albany Ave.  FREE (RSVPs for veterans who would like to be honored is required by Nov. 7, noon; call (860) 236-2630)

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11

West Hartford – Kristallnacht 75th Anniversary Lecture, “Holocaust Denial: A New Form of Anti-Semitism?” with Deborah Lipstadt, Emory University, Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life; sponsored by UConn Storrs and West Hartford, and other organizations; 7:30 p.m., at Library Building Auditorium, UConn-West Hartford Campus, (860) 486-6332. FREE, but seating is limited. Tickets available at UConn Center for Judaic Studies, Greenberg Center at University of Hartford, Mandell JCC, Congregation Beth Israel, Beth David Synagogue, Bruyette Athenaeum at the University of Saint Joseph.