Nov. 9 and 10 marks Kristallnacht, or “The night of shattered glass,” for Jews around the world, including here in Connecticut.
Back in November 1938, experts say a policy shift occurred in Nazi Germany, leaving families like Weiner’s vulnerable.
“Everything changed overnight,” said Ruth Weiner, a Holocaust survivor and Bloomfield resident.
She was seven years old and living in Vienna, Austria on Kristallnacht. She said waking up on Nov. 10, there was a feeling something was off.
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“There was something severely dangerous going on,” Weiner said.
By the 10th, violence that started in Germany had spread to Vienna. She remembers a mob outside her school, throwing rocks and yelling. Images of fire and smells of smoke remain in her memory 85 years later.
“They had emptied out the bookstores and had built a pyre in the middle of the street and had set it on fire,” Weiner said.
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She said the sharp rise of antisemitism currently playing out globally is sparking a terrible feeling.
“I wouldn’t be honest, if I didn’t say, I really feel that what we are experiencing today, is chapter two,” Weiner said.
Avinoam Patt, director of the Center for Judaic Studies at UConn, said Kristallnacht is typically marked with memorials, vigils and educational events. Adding, this year, the message typically echoed on Nov. 9 and 10 “never again” is carrying extra weight.
“It reminds us of the obligation to take lessons from the past and apply them to the world today,” Patt said.
Education is what other experts offered as some of the most important parts of each Kristallnacht.
“Our hearts are heavy, as we enter this Kristallnacht,” said Millie Jasper with the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center.
She said education is one of the most valuable ways to mark Kristallnacht each year, and especially this year.
“We say never again and hope that through education never again one day becomes reality,” Jasper said.
There are plenty of educational events and memorials being held through the weekend. Connecticut State Police said they are continuing to monitor for any threats and will remain extra vigilant through the weekend, but there have been no threats in Connecticut.
