KRISTALLNACHT SEVENTY YEARS LATER - “Was There No Space in the World for Us?” -by Rabbi Marvin Hier

KRISTALLNACHT SEVENTY YEARS LATER
“Was There No Space in the World for Us?”

by Rabbi Marvin Hier

Seventy years ago, while Jews in America gathered at the Algonquin Hotel and Waldorf Astoria atbanquets in support of Jewish causes or in personal celebration of a Simcha, the most notorious pogrom was unleashed by Hitler’s Germany. On this day was born the Night ofBroken Glass, Kristallnacht.

The Nazis said it was in reaction to the killing of a German official in Paris, but as documentsshowed, it was a state organized pogrom involving the highest officials of Nazi Germany. As Josef Goebbels instructed the SA (Brownshirts) leadership – synagogues are tobe burned down but only when there is no danger to the surroundings...businesses and private apartments of the Jews may be destroyed but not looted. Jews, especially therich, are to be arrested - as many as can be accommodated in our prisons. Upon arrest, concentration camps should be contacted immediately to arrange theirconfinement...

In Baden Baden, a Christian who was forced to watch the march of the Jews that night wrote, theylooked like Christ figures, their heads held high, unbowed by any feelings of guilt. At the local synagogue in Baden, Dr. Arthur Felhinger was forced by the SS to read to theJews gathered, passages from Hitler’s, Mein Kampf. Every time he lowered his voice, an SS man stood behind him and clubbed him. The readings went on for a longtime. Those who had to relieve themselves were allowed to do so, provided it was up against the Ark of the synagogue. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the synagoguewas torched.

Meanwhile, the Nazis arrived at the Dislanken Orphanage on the morning of November 10th. Therewere 46 people there, 32 of them children when the Nazis began their destruction of the orphanage. As the children raced outside, seeking protection, the senior policeofficer of the town said, “The Jews are not entitled to any protection.”

Terrified and standing outside, the children watched as the books, chairs, and beds, were thrown outof the window. Encouraged by the mob of some 200 that stood outside, the Nazis continued the pogrom. As he looked at the crowd, the director of the orphanage noticedthat standing with them were the suppliers of the orphanage and the trades people who were regularly employed there. There was no remorse and no compassion. None of themsaid a single word in defense of the children who were now left homeless.

While most non-Jews acquiesced, or joined the mob, a few did not. A week after Kristallnacht,in Swabia, Pastor Julius von Jan preached to his congregation, “Houses of worship have been burned down with impunity. Men who served our nation and have done their duty havebeen thrown into concentration camps because they belong to a different race. Our nation’s infamy is bound to bring about divine punishment.” One week later, Pastor vonJan was brutally beaten and taken to a concentration camp.

Soon after Kristallnacht, a German official in Berlin tells the US Consulate that the 50,000 Jewsarrested after Kristallnacht would be released to other countries willing to take them in.

In a poll taken in America in the days following Kristallnacht, “88% of Americans disapproved ofHitler’s treatment of Jews, but 60% thought it was their own fault.

A few months after Kristallnacht, twelve-year-old Eric Lucas was sent by his parents toEngland. “We lived right on the border, beyond it stretched the free towns of Belgium and Holland. It was just an hour by train to the channel port of Ostend. Itwas a cold, dark February morning when I left Germany. I was the only passenger who boarded the train at the station. There were few travelers but many customs officialsand soldiers.

When I was at last allowed to board the train, I rushed to the window to look for my parents, whom Icould not see until I left the custom’s shed. They stood in the distance, but could not come to the train. I waved timidly, full of fear, but even that was too much forthe guards. A man in a black uniform rushed up to me and said, “You Jewish swine, one more sign or word from you and we shall keep youhere.”

And so I stood at the window, in the distance stood a silent and aging couple, to whom I daredneither speak nor wave a final farewell. But I could see their faces very distinctly.

A few hours before, just before they took me to the train station, my father and mother had laidtheir hands gently on my bowed head invoking the ancient blessing, that G-d let me be like Ephraim and Menashe – let it be well with you, do your work and duty, and if G-d willsit, we shall see you again. Never forget that you are a Jew, do not forget your people, and do not forget us. This, my father had said – his eyes had grown soft anddim.

My boy, added my mother, it may be that we can come after you, but know what? you will never be awayfrom me, as tears streamed down her kind and sad face. With a last effort, she uttered familiar Hebrew words, “Go now in life and peace.” Standing at the window, I wasovercome with the certainty that I would never see them again. Cruel hands kept us apart at that last intimate moment. Why, oh G-d does it have to be likethat?

There stood my parents, my father, leaning heavily on a stick, holding his wife’s hand. It wasthe first and the last time I had seen them both weep. As the train pulled out of the station to wield me to safety, I leaned my face against the cold glass of the window andwept bitterly.”

In March of 1939, in London, Eric Lucas was still trying the find a foreign embassy willing to gethis parents a Visa but, unfortunately, he was unable to do so.

Eric received one final letter from his parents. In it, his motherwrote:

“We shall never see you again, was there no space in the whole wide world for us two oldpeople? I hope we shall not live very long now. There is nothing left to hope for. We are so lonely and forsaken. Was there nobody who could havehelped?” Three years later, Eric Lucas’ parents perished in the Holocaust.

Of course there were heroes during the events of Kristallnacht and the Holocaust and we should doall in our power to make sure that their stories live on and are passed from generation to generation, but the other part of the tragedy must also be passed on – that there weremore villains than saints – more experts at closing doors than those brave enough to open them – that hundreds of train operators went to work each day with their lunch bags whilewomen and children were loaded onto cattle cars to go to the death camps. Then, they drove the trains to Auschwitz and Maidanek, never having second thoughts about what theywere doing.

Let us take these lessons to heart – let us remember how many opportunities the world had to stopthis, but did not – and let us vow that never again, under our watch, will we sit back and allow humanity to be so debased. May the memory of the martyred millions lead us toa better world for Jews and for all mankind.