Wednesday marks 84 years since the November pogrom “Kristallnacht” — or the Night of Broken Glass.
On the night of Nov. 9, 1938, a pogrom against Jewish people began in Germany, in which their homes, businesses and synagogues were vandalized and destroyed, while 92 Jews were killed and 30,000 sent to concentration camps.
The violence of that night and the days that followed is considered the starting point of the Holocaust, Ilan Ben Zion writes in The Associated Press.
Now, 84 years later, newly discovered photographs donated to Israel’s Yad Vashem memorial show the horror and destruction of that night up close.
The photos — taken by Nazi photographers in Nuremberg, Germany, and nearby Fuerth — were donated to Yad Vashem when they were discovered by the descendants of a Jewish American serviceman, according to The Associated Press.
In the photos, Nazi soldiers carry books for burning, a soldier breaks a glass window as bystanders look on and Jewish property is ransacked and destroyed.
Jonathan Matthews, the head of photo archives at Yad Vashem, said, “We can see Schutzstaffel (SS) and Sturmabteilung (SA) members executing the pogroms. They shatter, ignite and burn Jewish stores and synagogues, humiliate Jews, all while the public stands aside and watches,” according to Israeli news site Ynet News.
“This is further proof the order was given by Nazi leaders, and these pogroms were not spontaneous — as Germany tried to present,” Matthews stated.
Now, 84 years later, Kristallnacht survivors are warning others about the dangers of antisemitism and hate speech in a campaign launched by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
The #ItStartedWithWords campaign released a video in which survivors recount their experiences.
“With the growing prevalence of Holocaust denial, distortion and hate speech on social platforms, the core message behind the #ItStartedWithWords campaign becomes even more important: The Holocaust did not start with camps, ghettos and deportations; it started with words of hate,” said Greg Schneider, the executive vice president of the Claims Conference, per The Associated Press.