Last Updated on December 9, 2021
Commemorating Kristallnacht – 82 years on.
Between 9 and 10 November 1938, over 1,400 synagogues and prayer rooms, thousands of Jewish-owned homes, hospitals, shops and cemeteries were damaged or destroyed across Nazi Germany and Austria – this night became know as Kristallnacht. This year, the 82nd anniversary, Jews around the world will be commemorating Kristallnacht.
This past week, Vienna, Austria four innocent people were murdered near the synagogue on Seitenstettengasse. Just two years ago, one of the most horrific antisemitic attacks in history took place at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. Eleven Jewish souls were lost that day and only because they were Jewish. Because of terrorism, intolerance and hate these families are forever broken.
On the 82nd anniversary of Kristallnacht, Jews around the world are being encouraged to unite in solidarity and leave a light burning all night long in their homes and Synagogues.
- Holocaust Memorial Day (Hebrew: Yom Hashoah) – in memory of 6 million Jews that were killed under Nazi Germany rule between 1933 and 1945
- More about ‘Unto every person there is a name’ ceremony held annually in the Chagall Hall at the Knesset
Kristallnacht is also known as ‘Night of the Broken Glass’ as well as the ‘November Pogrom’
- On this single night 92 Jews were murdered
- 638 Jews were estimated to have committed suicide that night
- 267 synagogues throughout Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland were destroyed
- Over 7,000 Jewish businesses were damaged or destroyed
- 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and incarcerated in concentration camps
“Unite the world by shining light over the darkness of hate.”
Via the March of the Living International website you can sign the pledge to keep a light burning on Yom Hashoah at the same time you can submit a message that will be projected onto the Walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.
