Crystal Night. The Night of Broken Glass.
October 1938 saw the forced deportation of thousands of German Jews to the Polish border where some were allowed immigration but many waited. All were uprooted from their homes and dispossessed, many traveled penniless. This deportation was an inevitable result of the cumulative 90 discriminatory, anti-Jewish laws passed in Germany from 1933 to 1935.
Living in Paris was the seventeen year old son of two of the displaced, Herschel Grynszpan. From his sister, who was with their parents, he had received a post card telling him of their plight and asking for any money he could spare. The family had lived in Hanover for twenty seven years. After receiving the post card, Grynszpan purchased a newspaper where he read in graphic detail of the deportations from Germany. On Monday, November 7, he took a loaded pistol to the German embassy where, “in the name of 12,000 persecuted Jews,” he shot Ernst vom Rath, fatally wounding him.
Not wanting to miss a golden opportunity to further their warped agenda, during the night and morning of November 9 and 10, 1938 (seventy years ago today), Nazi goons all over Germany set fire to more than 200 Jewish synagogues and smashed the windows of 7,500 of Jewish owned stores and businesses. One writer called it,
the crowning moment in the wild domestic terror that Germans perpetrated upon Jews.
In villages, towns and cities across Germany, Jewish residents were awakened to the sounds of shattering glass and beaten flesh. Around 100 were killed and some 30,000 taken to concentration camps. A picture from the day shows German citizens lining a street while Nazi policemen march Jewish men toward a transport to Dachau. A Bible twisting sign held in the crowd reads, “Exodus of the Jews.”
It bears remembering that Hitler did not come into power by a coup, but by the will of the people of Germany. Runaway inflation, national shame and the loathed Treaty of Versailles primed the country to listen to the pseudo psychological babblings of the mustachioed madman. The primary motivation that prepared ordinary Germans to accept the leadership of a man who was obviously either crazy, demon possessed or both was not reason; what Hitler believed did not make sense and was against any real science. It was not based on history; Jews had been in Germany, and Europe, for generations. It was not based on parasitism; Jews contributed greatly to the German economy, being hardworking business people.
It was based on fear. German nationalistic pride was in shambles. The German economy was suffering from runaway inflation. The German military forces were supposed to be severely curtailed and military aircraft non-existent. The German people lived in fear of the future and into the leadership void stepped Adolph Hitler, who was welcomed with open arms and admired with open hearts.
About a month ago, we had the opportunity to go to a nearby town and hear a presentation by Holocaust survivor, Eugen Shoenfeld, retired professor from Georgia State University and author of My Reconstructed Life. He recounted his story from the age of 17 when he boarded a crowded train car with scores of other Jews where they rode four days with virtually no food and only a bucket for a toilet. Upon finally arriving at the destination, they began disembarking into two lines at the heads of which stood a man in a leather jacket who was motioning some people to the right and others to the left.
The place was Auschwitz.
The man was Dr. Joseph Mengele.
Many of Schoenfeld’s family were unwittingly condemned on the spot, while he and other family members joined the hundreds of Jews already in laborious, sickening captivity. Schoenfeld lived until he and the remaining survivors were liberated by American soldiers. The irony of being freed by American Lt. Schwartz was not lost on the young man.
Following the story of his life, the retired professor reminded us of the emotion that drove virtually an entire country to support Hitler: fear. He reminded us that fear causes otherwise rational people to do completely irrational things. At that moment in our country, we were just in the beginning of the economic meltdown from the mortgage crisis. Wall Street was in a panic and it seemed that decision after decision was being made as a result of fear, whether a hastily conceived bailout or 401(k) owners selling out stocks and moving into cash. Fear is not a link to wisdom or patience.
Fear, no matter what the “boogie man” behind it, causes people to willingly, and often eagerly, sell their future for a “mess of pottage.” It happens over and over again in our world. Fear of one government causes submission to a war lord. Fear of liberalism causes conservatives to make bad decisions. Fear of another terrorist attack, well, interpret events as you will. Fear war and you vote for Barack Obama. Fear Barack Obama and you vote for anyone else. Regardless of who is president, we can never allow fear to lead us to willingly give up our basic rights. Once given, they are rarely returned. Just ask the Germans. Wearing the cloak of fear, the Reichstag gave unfettered authority to Hitler, making themselves puppets in his dictatorship.
Leadership is forged in time of crisis to be sure, but the hammer of the molding is never fear. Life leadership has to be from faith, wisdom and boldness, never from fear, uncertainty and weakness. If there are any citizens that live free from fear and exhibit the patience to evaluate circumstances based on the truths of God, it ought to be His people. Let it be so.
