Capital of europe marks 70th anniversary of ‘kristallnacht’ and promotes tolerance

European Jewish Press
08.11.2008
Yossi Lempkowicz

A series of events will be held Sunday and Monday in Brussels, seat of the main European Union institutions, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the anti-Jewish pogroms in Germany and Austria that culminated in the Holocaust, and to promote tolerance across the continent.

They will be attended by several hundred of political and Jewish leaders from across Europe, members of the European Parliament, diplomats, as well as Holocaust survivors and eyewitnesses of ‘Kristallnacht’. 

On the night of 9 to 10 November 1938, a coordinated series of pogroms were perpetrated by the Nazis in the Germany and Austria against Jews, their synagogues, their businesses and their homes.

The anti-Jewish riots came to be known as 'Kristallnacht' or Night of Broken Glass, a reference to the great numbers of broken windows of synagogues, Jewish-owned stores, community centres and homes plundered and destroyed during the pogroms. Tens of thousands Jews were attacked, killed or deported to the concentration camps.

That night marked the beginning of the atrocities that were to progressively intensify and become the full horror of the Holocaust.

On Sunday, the European Jewish Congress, a pan-European Jewish representative body, will organize a memorial service at the Brussels Great Synagogue.

 The service, to be attended by Meir Lau, Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, Rabbi Arthur Schneier from the Park East Synagogue in New York, and Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, will be co-organized by the Conference of European Rabbis, the World Holocaust Forum (WHF), Yad Vashem, and the Jewish Community of Belgium.    

Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress and of the World Holocaust Forum: "The lessons of ‘Kristallnacht’ must be learned again and again.Forgetting what happened in 1938 means allowing discrimination and persecution spread again.”

On Monday, the EJC will host a special event promoting tolerance in the European Parliament in Brussels.

The event will be held under the auspices of the president of the EU assembly, Hans-Gert Poettering. Speakers will include European Commission President José-Manuel Barroso, former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, who chairs the recently launched European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation (ECTR), Lluis Maria de Puig, Spanish President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the 47-nation Council of Europe, and Rabbi Meir Lau, a Holocaust survivor.

Explaining the motivation for these commemorations in the city which hosts the European Commission, the European Council of Ministers and the European Parliament, EJC President Moshe Kantor said: "Intolerance is unfortunately a recurring phenomenon. With these events, we want to emphasize that the lessons of ‘Kristallnacht’ must be learned again and again, and that forgetting what happened in 1938 means allowing discrimination and persecution spread again."

 “Europe’s political leaders need to heed the lesson of 1938 and be at the forefront of fighting for human rights and dignity," he added.

"On this anniversary it is important to take time to reflect on the events of 70 years ago but also to look forward to work towards eliminating the causes of xenophobia, racism and anti-Semitism, and to promote tolerance and respect amongst all the peoples of the European continent."

On Monday evening, EU Commission Vice-President and Commissioner in charge of enlargement, Guenter Verheugen, will address a diplomatic dinner.