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Germany’s head of state warned that anti-Semitism is making a resurgence. On the anniversary of the November pogroms, Federal President Steinmeier called for action. Jewish life must be protected.
On the anniversary of the night of the pogrom, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called for constant action against anti-Semitism in Germany. He is ashamed that Jews in kippah do not feel safe on the streets of this country and that Jewish houses of prayer have to be protected, Steinmeier said in a joint video message with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and his Austrian counterpart Alexander van der Bellen.
“We are together, in Vienna, in Jerusalem, in Berlin,” the three presidents continued. The message is part of a joint worldwide campaign in memory of the November 1938 pogroms under the title “Let there be light.” “I am ashamed that a fatal attack on the synagogue in Halle a year ago on Yom Kippur was only prevented by a heavy wooden door,” Steinmeier said. However, it is not enough to describe reality: “We have to act.” Steinmeier recommitted himself to fighting anti-Semitism and protecting Jewish life.
Steinmeier said he was grateful “that the authorities in Germany are fulfilling their responsibilities by increasing police protection for synagogues and prosecuting anti-Semitic crimes with the full severity of the law.”
“Disgusting outbreak of violence”
During the November pogroms on the night of November 9-10, 1938, National Socialists set fire to Jewish synagogues, shops and apartments throughout Germany and abused, kidnapped and murdered Jewish citizens. According to different estimates, between 400 and 1,300 people died or committed suicide in what was then Reich territory.
This “disgusting outbreak of violence” did not mark the beginning of the persecution of Jews in Germany, the federal president said. The pogroms continued “for many years of discrimination, intimidation and hostility.” “They were a harbinger of the incredible Shoah crimes that my compatriots would commit a few years later,” Steinmeier said. They are an urgent warning to current generations, Steinmeier emphasized.
The federal president warned against leaving black, red and gold colors to extremists. “Those who despise parliamentary democracy and human rights have no right to invoke these colors,” he said in memory of Democrat and freedom fighter Robert Blum. who was executed by the imperial military on November 9, 1848.
“Shame in the country”
Other representatives of politics and religion also recalled the crime. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas highlighted the value of the culture of memory. “Remembering means drawing the correct conclusions for today and tomorrow from yesterday,” he said. Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht announced more intense action against anti-Jewish statements on the Internet. Hate against Jews is “a disgrace to our country,” he told the “Rheinische Post.”
Federal government antisemitism commissioner Felix Klein said that RBBToday you can see how the country failed morally through indifference or submission. He encouraged those affected and witnesses to report anti-Semitic incidents: “This is the only way that something can change. We have to make the problem visible to overcome it as a society.”
To this day, the memory of the indifference of the majority of their neighbors is the most horrible thing for the Jewish survivors of this night of horror, “which they have not been able to cope with until today,” declared the Executive Vice President of the Committee. Auschwitz International, Christoph Heubner. The Bishop of Fulda, Michael Gerber, warned against extremism. A radicalization, “in which the basic rules of human coexistence are relativized,” is apparently quickly possible, he told the “Fuldaer Zeitung”.
Commemorative ceremony on social media
A memorial service is planned for tonight at Rivlin’s residence in Jerusalem with international participation online. Speakers include the outgoing director of the Jerusalem Holocaust Memorial, Yad Vashem, Avner Schalev, and former Israeli Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau. According to the Office of the President, the celebration will be broadcast live on Rivlin’s social media channels. In the evening, prayers and messages from around the world will also be projected on the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.
The “March of the Living” international education project campaign called for lights to be turned on in places of worship, institutions and private homes around the world on the night of November 9. So far, dozens of places of worship are said to have participated.
