Kristallnacht  by Tom Reynolds

Yesterday, we wrote about the history of Veterans Day and how, today, there are similar events to those that led to World War 1.  Eighty-five years ago, there was another event which should give us pause when we see what is happening today. 

November 9th to 10th, 1938 is known as Kristallnacht (”Crystal Night” or the “Night of Broken Glass”).

Beginning in 1933, when Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany, Jews had been subjected to repressive policies that were primarily non-violent. 

But in the fall of 1938 a 17-year-old Polish Jew shot and killed Ernst vom Rath, a German diplomat, in Paris.  Never letting a crisis go to waste, Hitler attended Rath’s funeral and used the assassination to rile up anti-Semitic frenzy.

Starting in the late hours on November 9th and continuing into the next day, Nazi mobs, SS troops and ordinary citizens torched or otherwise vandalized hundreds of synagogues throughout Germany and damaged or destroyed, thousands of Jewish homes, schools, businesses, hospitals and cemeteries.

Approximately 100 Jews were murdered.

Nazi officials ordered German police officers and firemen to do nothing as the riots raged and buildings burned.  (Firefighters were allowed to extinguish blazes that threatened Aryan-owned property.)

After Kristallnacht, the streets and sidewalks of Jewish communities were littered with broken glass from vandalized buildings, giving rise to the names “Crystal Night” or “Night of Broken Glass.”

The Nazis imposed a collective fine of $400 million on the German-Jewish community, claiming it was responsible for the damage.

Additionally, more than 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to the Dachau, Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen concentration camps in Germany

Kristallnacht marked a turning point toward treatment of Jews by the Nazis. By the end of 1938, Jews were prohibited from schools and most public places in Germany.

During World War II, Hitler and the Nazis implemented their so-called “Final Solution” to what they referred to as the “Jewish problem,” and carried out the systematic murder of some 6 million European Jews (along with, by some estimates, 4 million to 6 million non-Jews) in what came to be known as the Holocaust.

Why didn’t the Jews defend their lives and property on Kristallnacht?

Both before and after the Nazis took power in 1930’s Germany, few citizens owned, or were entitled to own firearms due to strict gun control laws.  Under the Nazis, the laws were further tightened to ban ownership of guns by Jews. Nazi laws systematically disarmed so-called "unreliable" persons, especially Jews while relaxing restrictions for Nazi party members.

So, the answer is that the Jews did not have guns to protect themselves.  We can’t make that mistake.

Over the last four years, we have seen mobs run wild in many cities; burning, looting and killing.  Just like the Nazis in Germany, government officials ordered police and firemen to do nothing as the riots raged and buildings burned.   

Encouraged by their success, the haters have turned on the Jewish population after Israel responded to the barbaric invasion by Hamas.

Hitler used a shooting to provoke the anger against a race of people that led to Kristallnacht.  We see Biden and Hochul using every shooting incident to blame guns, instead of the shooters, in order to further their unconstitutional political motives.  

Ida B. Wells had a quote: “A Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home, and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give.”  Whether it’s Kristallnacht or riots in American cities, that advice is as appropriate now as it was over one hundred years ago.

We cannot relax in our efforts to preserve protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.  Especially defending it against those that believe the 2nd Amendment is a 2nd Class Right.  A strong 2nd Amendment is our first line of defense against another Kristallnacht.