Walking Over Broken Glass
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Interior of destroyed Fasanenstrasse Synagogue, Berlin, burned on Kristallnacht; November Pogroms.
When the Arab terrorist group Hamas entered Israel on October 7, the world was horrified. On that day, these terrorists kidnapped 200, killed 1,400, and wounded more than 4,500 Israelis. Innocent men, women, and children were slaughtered simply because they were Jewish.
The appalling attack brings to memory another terrible act of violence against the Jewish people that took place 85 years ago. On November 9–10, 1938, innocent Jewish Germans endured devastating physical and spiritual darkness much like the evil perpetrated against Israel today.
Kristallnacht was the defining moment regarding the Nazis’ approach to the Jewish people, effectively launching the Holocaust. The Third Reich officially established the full-blown persecution of those they would later distinguish with badges bearing the Star of David. Cultural prospects began to deteriorate immediately for the Jewish people, though so many of them had long known this land as their home.
The Night of Suffering
So what exactly was Kristallnacht? The word literally means “night of crystal” but has since taken on the fuller meaning “Night of Broken Glass.”
The pretext for the event was the tragic decision of Herschel Grynszpan (a Polish Jewish teenager) to assassinate Ernst vom Rath (a German official) in Paris on November 7, 1938. Grynszpan’s evil act was a reaction against anti-Jewish policies impacting his own family. It was, of course, also foolish and played directly into the Nazis’ hands, giving them the opening they desired to institute an all-out assault on the Jewish people.
The scope of Kristallnacht almost wearies the imagination. Rampant violence erupted throughout Germany, as well as in Austria, Czechoslovakia, and beyond. Disguising it as an organic demonstration, the Hitler Youth and Nazi Storm Troopers elaborately engineered the brutal pogrom. It was a bloodbath.
The destruction was massive, as Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues were mercilessly destroyed. Firefighters protected German properties while allowing conflagrations to blaze unhindered in Jewish-owned structures. The sensation of walking over the broken glass must have given them a perverted sense of satisfaction.
To add insult to injury, authorities demanded that the Jewish people pay an exorbitant penalty to cover the extensive damage they had suffered.
Reports of the damage can vary widely, as much of the night seems a blur to this day. But the consensus is that roughly 30,000 Jewish men—perhaps 10 percent of Jewish men in Germany—had their first encounter with Nazi concentration camps, especially Buchenwald (on a hill above Weimar), Dachau (northwest of Munich), and Sachsenhausen (in Oranienburg, north of Berlin).
Kristallnacht’s Enduring Legacy
When my wife and I attended a 500th-anniversary Reformation tour of Germany in 2017, we stayed three nights in Weimar, and our bus drove past Buchenwald. This firsthand visit helped us understand how this death camp would have overshadowed the city and its residents.
Like Haman in ancient Medo-Persia, the Nazi attitude toward the people of Israel was brazen and uncomplicated: “It is not fitting for the king to let them remain” (Esther 3:8).
Studying Kristallnacht is heartbreaking, but captivating. As U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stated afterward: “I myself could scarcely believe that such things could occur in a 20th-century civilization.” For almost inexplicable reasons, the event still holds a haunting attraction. It is, at once, a study in human depravity, exploitation, and violence on the one hand, and intense agony and suffering on the other.
Never Again?
Out of the shards of the broken glass of Kristallnacht, God crafted a work of art. Half a world away, He convicted a group of Bible-believing, Israel-loving Christians to formulate an immediate response. On December 1, 1938, only three weeks after Kristallnacht and the beginning of the Holocaust in Germany, The Friends of Israel Refugee Relief Committee (now known as The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry) launched in Philadelphia. It began out of loving compassion, through great vision, with remarkable wisdom and courage, and at great personal risk to all involved.
In faith, they named the organization The Friends of Israel 10 years before the birth of the modern State of Israel. These brave men and women were willing—metaphorically and even physically—to walk over the broken glass of Kristallnacht, with “great sorrow and continual grief in” their hearts (Rom. 9:2).
The civilized world has vowed for the past 85 years to never forget such tragedies as the Jewish people suffered. Yet, how many today know anything at all about this monumental event?
Could there be another Kristallnacht, even another Holocaust, before the Rapture of the church? We desperately desire to say no, but recent events, most notably the violence Hamas committed against innocent Israelis and pro-Palestinian protesters’ support for these actions, indicate otherwise.
May the Lord help us, by His grace, to carry the same burden for the Jewish people that our forefathers bore—even being willing, as they were, to risk our own comfort and worldly esteem.
Reposted, with permission, from the Friends of Israel Blog.
Paul Scharf 2023 bio
Paul J. Scharf (M.A., M.Div., Faith Baptist Theological Seminary) is a church ministries representative for The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, based in Columbus, WI, and serving in the Midwest. For more information on his ministry, visit sermonaudio.com/pscharf or foi.org/scharf, or email pscharf@foi.org.
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Last week I heard a caller to a radio program in Milwaukee state that Kristallnacht never happened, leaving the host speechless. The call might have been a hoax, but it sounded authentic to me.
Could there be another Kristallnacht, even another Holocaust, before the Rapture of the church? We desperately desire to say no, but recent events, most notably the violence Hamas committed against innocent Israelis and pro-Palestinian protesters’ support for these actions, indicate otherwise.
May the Lord help us, by His grace, to carry the same burden for the Jewish people that our forefathers bore—even being willing, as they were, to risk our own comfort and worldly esteem.
I am burdened for the atrocities committed against Israel, and also for the atrocities committed against the Palestinian people by Israel. I hope that in their desire to support Israel people do not forget the wrong done to the Palestinians. Neither side is innocent in how they have treated the other over the last 50 plus years.
Martin Gilbert's Kristallnacht is excellent.
Wally Morris
Huntington, IN
...I'm seeing a lot more evidence that too many people are saying "never mind" instead of "never again", and it's terrifying to me that there are pro-Hamas demonstrations all around the world, and that even governments are pleading for a ceasefire in the war here. Scroll back to 1945, and no sane government would have suggested that--the world had seen what Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan were capable of, and a ceasefire or pause in the fighting would only have allowed them to re-arm in the same way that the Viet Cong used the Tet ceasefire to re-arm for the Tet Offensive.
Regarding the notion of Israeli atrocities, my take is that civilian deaths in Gaza are caused almost exclusively by Hamas' habit of using civilian sites for housing ammunition dumps, rocket launchers, and the like. Hamas HQ is said to be in tunnels beneath a hospital. So all those deaths--and the Hamas estimates being spread around are almost certainly a huge exaggeration--are not Israeli atrocities, but rather Hamas atrocities.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
Bert, I agree 100% about Hamas, and Israel has a right to defend itself. Certainly many of the civilian deaths are a result of Hamas using civilian infrastructure for military operations. But although Hamas controls the Gaza strip, the Palestinian people themselves are not Hamas. I've seen many Christians in their eagerness to defend Israel forget that Palestinians are humans too. They are thought of as disposable because Hamas=evil and Israel=good (I'm speaking generally, not suggesting this is you personally, Bert).
Also, Palestinians have been overlooked in the national community for decades. They have been antagonized and frequently brutalized by Israeli security forces on an almost daily basis for many years, just on more of a micro level so it's not as noticeable to the national community. As Christians, we tend to want to think of Israel as being a clean and pure as the wind-driven snow, but that's just not the case. There is plenty of information out there about this if one is interested in researching. That is still no defense for the evil acts of Hamas, but let's at least acknowledge that Israel bears responsibility for their actions as well. And also remember that the Palestinian people who've been badly mistreated by Israel are not Hamas, and their suffering is as much a tragedy as anyone else's.
....comes to mind here; We have met the enemy, and he is us. No doubt there are some genuinely victimized Palestinians out there, but when we've got too many "civilians" lining the streets to cheer as the bodies of murdered Israelis are brought to Gaza, and too many parents cheering as their sons murder and even gang rape innocents, it's hard to conjure up much compassion.
It's a lot, in my view, like the plight of Germans after 1945. Most had not worked at the death camps or for the SS, but our approach to all was about the same; compulsory viewing of footage of the death camps, and Nazi-era textbooks were destroyed and replaced by ones written under U.S./British/French supervision. I don't know whether the debauched portion of Palestinians is 5%, 50%, or 95%, but something's got to change.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
Pogo's lemma
....comes to mind here; We have met the enemy, and he is us. No doubt there are some genuinely victimized Palestinians out there, but when we've got too many "civilians" lining the streets to cheer as the bodies of murdered Israelis are brought to Gaza, and too many parents cheering as their sons murder and even gang rape innocents, it's hard to conjure up much compassion.
It's a lot, in my view, like the plight of Germans after 1945. Most had not worked at the death camps or for the SS, but our approach to all was about the same; compulsory viewing of footage of the death camps, and Nazi-era textbooks were destroyed and replaced by ones written under U.S./British/French supervision. I don't know whether the debauched portion of Palestinians is 5%, 50%, or 95%, but something's got to change.
This reply is demonstrative of the points I was trying to make. In my view, the Israeli-Palestinian relationship is far more nuanced than Palestinian=bad and Israeli=good, though I'd agree that Hamas=bad. We are missing the full picture if we believe that Palestinians cheer Israeli deaths but not the other way around. Put another way for illustration, if a person kicks a dog every time they walk past and then the dog bites them, the dog is probably going to be put down. But it's a mistake to assume that the dog is the only one to blame. I'll leave it at that.
Ken, let's be real here. Where are the raucous celebrations in the streets as dead Palestinians are brought into Israel? Where are the recordings of Israeli parents rejoicing as their sons call home telling their parents they've murdered a lot of Palestinian civilians and gang raped their daughters before murdering them--and the parents respond with "halleluiah"?
It ain't out there. It doesn't implicate every Palestinian, but it does suggest that a key issue is that a significant portion of Palestinians are comfortable with the public display of atrocities that....let's be blunt here....not even the Nazis dared to display. (and when the U.S. and other occupying powers showed German civilians what had been done, there were precious few who didn't repent)
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
The proper illustration would not be about kicking a dog that had done nothing wrong, but about putting the dog on a chain because it had bitten multiple times and was growling and lunging. Then once the dog actually killed, more drastic measures had to be taken. To be upset that such a dog was being mistreated because it was put on a chain- and then making excuses for the dog killing and blaming it on the chain, makes no sense.
Actually the above illustration would be more accurate if we said the dog was put on a chain after having bitten and killed. The killing did not start on October 7th. It has been going on for a long time, just not at the horrific level that we saw recently.
Ken, let's be real here. Where are the raucous celebrations in the streets as dead Palestinians are brought into Israel? Where are the recordings of Israeli parents rejoicing as their sons call home telling their parents they've murdered a lot of Palestinian civilians and gang raped their daughters before murdering them--and the parents respond with "halleluiah"?
It ain't out there.
Yes, it is. Here and here for example.
But really, a better question is why do Palestinians celebrate Israeli deaths? Is it because they are just evil people? They are simply intrinsically barbaric in a way that Israelis are not? It's a part of their ethnicity to love killing people?
Isn't it possible that they are oppressed people celebrating the calamity of their oppressors as oppressed people have historically done throughout history? I don't think it's right to celebrate Israeli deaths by any stretch, but it's not like there's no other reason behind it than Palestinian barbarism.
I used to think about the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts in the same way as most here on this forum. But reading about and seeing numerous videos of mistreatment of Palestinians have changed my mind. Israel is not blameless. There are literally videos all over Youtube and Reddit of Israeli soldiers terrorizing Palestinians. Have you ever watched any of those? You can bury your head in the sand and pretend it's not out there and that Israel is completely innocent of wrongdoing, but it is out there for any who wish to see it.
I recommend finding articles and videos that don't support your viewpoint and considering them with an open mind that is willing to reconsider. Here's a couple for starters: One, Two
I've grown weary of hearing Christians talk about Palestinians as if they are sub-human and their lives are completely expendable while at the same time justifying Israeli oppression and regarding Israeli deaths as a tragedy. No, they'd never say quite so bluntly, but it's what is portrayed nonetheless.
Ken, thanks for sharing the links. The first one I clicked on looks like it was from 2014 and just a few comments in someone said they wished Hitler had finished the job. I am fed up with the Jewish hatred that is being spread all over the world. In the mean time such hatred is excused but if a former President calls someone vermin, he is considered a Nazi. Knowing the depravity of humanity, it is not a surprise that some Israelis would do some evil. But such displays are rare in comparison to the many antisemitic displays all over the world. The second video you shared was from 2015. You had to go back that far to find examples, but we have countless recent examples of people celebrating the killing of Jews.
I'm going to have to suggest--see here--that a major reason for Hamas-cide is that Hamas controls the schools of Gaza, and one of the textbooks is no less than....
Mein Kampf.
There is an oppressor in Gaza, though. Its name is "Hamas", and transitively, it's name is "Iran".
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
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