"I join millions of people in the United States and around the world in marking the 75th anniversary of the tragedy of Kristallnacht – “the Night of Broken Glass.”
On November 9 and 10, 1938, Nazi
paramilitaries marched under the cover of darkness throughout the towns
and villages of Germany and Austria smashing Jewish storefronts,
arresting Jewish men en masse, ransacking Jewish homes,
burning books and littering the streets with the parchment of sacred
Judaic texts. Throughout the two-day wave of violence, hundreds of
synagogues and thousands of businesses owned by Jews were destroyed or
damaged. At least 91 Jews were killed, while another
30,000 were sent to concentration camps.
Kristallnacht
foreshadowed the systematic slaughter of six million Jews and millions
of other innocent victims. Seventy-five years later, Kristallnacht now
signifies the
tragic consequences of silence in the face of unmitigated hatred.
As
we mark this anniversary, let us act in keeping with the lessons of
that dark night by speaking out against anti-Semitism and intolerance,
standing up to indifference,
and re-committing ourselves to combatting prejudice and persecution
wherever it exists. In so doing, we honor the memories of those killed
and reaffirm that timeless call: 'Never Again.'”
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