Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass” on November 9-10, 1938, was a nationwide pogrom against Germany’s Jews organized by Joseph Goebbels, Reich minister of Propaganda. It is often viewed as the prologue to the ensuing Holocaust. Barbarism dropped the mask of civilization to show its true face.
A mass deportation of undocumented Jews in Germany precipitated this government-incited national riot. In August 1938, the Third Reich cancelled the residence permits of all foreigners residing in Germany, compelling them to make application for new ones. Then on October 28 the government rounded up 12,000 Polish Jews in the country and literally dumped them over the border into Poland, allowing only one suitcase each.
Among the deportees were the uncle and aunt of Herschel Grynszpan, a 19-year-old drifter residing in Paris. In retaliation for the deportation, on November 7th Grynszpan entered the German embassy, shooting and killing Ernst von Rath, a low-level diplomatic officer. Seizing upon this, Joseph Goebbels instigated the nationwide riot against the Jews, ordering police throughout the country to stand down and let it happen.
Over 1,200 synagogues were burned down, more than 7,000 Jewish businesses destroyed, and 30,000 Jews arrested and taken to concentration camps. It is estimated that at least 1,500 Jews died as result of this pogrom, close to half by suicide.
It is now clear that the Third Reich’s policy to its Jews was a means to a much larger end. Its pursuit led not only to the utter destruction of the German people it purported to save, but also of much of the world with them.
It is hard to imagine that the present American government’s mass deportations can take place without significant incident which would then enable a broader government clamp-down in the name of national security. Sending the military into several American cities to quell the reactions that it intentionally ginned up is a page from a playbook that autocratic regimes have routinely used.
The administration’s true objective is starting to come into focus. The mass expulsion of foreigners is a means to an end that in essence has little to do with undocumented workers and their families. The real goal, as is often the case, is increased control and the economic benefits that accrue to those who place themselves in a position to profit from the burgeoning autocracy.
This cynical age-old game never ends well − not for the autocrats and not for the nation they hijack. Autocratic top-down governments are notoriously fragile, and when they fall they fall hard. Too many are crushed in the process, and the nation’s road to recovery is long and difficult.
Rabbi Bruce Diamond is a resident of Fort Myers.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Kristallnacht revisited as America expels its undocumented immigrants | Opinion
Reporting by Rabbi Bruce Diamond / Fort Myers News-Press
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