The commemoration of the Night of Broken Glass in Munich shows what a loss it will be if eyewitnesses are no longer able to report.
comment by
Rene Hofmann
An annual act of remembrance is a great challenge. It runs the risk of becoming routine and thus losing its effectiveness. This danger exists even with events whose dimension of horror is timeless – such as the Reichspogromnacht on November 9, 1938. On that night, the National Socialists “pushed open the gate to Auschwitz”. Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Jewish Community in Munich and Upper Bavaria (IKG), put it this way on Wednesday evening – exactly at the place where violence against Jews had started 84 years earlier: the old town hall in Munich. Reich propaganda leader Joseph Goebbels delivered a hate speech that gave the signal to strike.