My dad and his parents lived in Berlin during Kristallnacht seventy-seven years ago. Wikipedia describes it as "a pogrom (a series of coordinated deadly attacks) against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and Austria on 9–10 November 1938, carried out by SA paramilitary forces and non-Jewish civilians. German authorities looked on without intervening." As the rest of the Wikipedia entry reveals, the German authorities had actively organized the carnage. As he recounts (in Dutch here), after Kristallnacht my father's family left Germany.
My dad's family escaped the night's turmoil without physical harm. The following story has been handed down in family lore: as the riots developed late at night, a neighbor -- a retired German general -- came to their door. He told them to hide in his house. If anybody would knock on the door he would open in his uniform, and nobody would dare to come in. So, my grandparents with their young infant (my dad was under six months old) stayed the night in his place unharmed.
Sadly, the story has not passed on the the nature of the prior relationship between my grandparents and their Samaritan, whose name has been lost in the dramatic events that followed. So, there are no grounds to speculate about the motives for his courageous act. He placed himself and his property as a human shield between my family and their would be assailants.
When governments turn against the lives and property of some of their own citizens or selectively maintain the rule of law, they often rely on the active participation and complicity not just of their active supporters and beneficiaries, but also the quiet majority whose tacit consent is required to keep things functioning orderly. It's important to remind ourselves sometimes how fragile the line can be between state power in the service of impartial law and state oppression.
The public remembrance of Kristallnacht has many different meanings and serves many political ends; it is no surprise that these, in turn, have become sources of political tension. In our family we remember the act of courage and decency by a neighbor who did not betray humanity.
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