Bryan Davis is the youth and Holocaust education coordinator for the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona.

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History offers lessons on turning bad into good

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This week marks 70 years since Kristallnacht, the 24-hour torrent of violence and destruction that befell the Jewish people of Germany and Austria in November 1938.

In order to remember Kristallnacht, we must place it in a historical context, understand it for the major turning point it was in 20th century history and apply its lessons today.

In the summer of 1938, the international Evian Conference was held to address the refugee problem posed by the growing number of Jews seeking to flee Nazi Germany, which at the time included Austria. Of the 33 nations in attendance, only the Dominican Republic agreed to modify its immigration policy in order to admit an additional 100,000 European Jews.

Monitoring the conference proceedings closely, Adolf Hitler remarked, "These countries with icy coldness assured us that obviously there was no place for Jews in their territories."

On Nov. 10, 1938, a coordinated and comprehensive assault on the Jewish communities of Germany and Austria was initiated with the Nazi Party leaders and the SA (Nazi stormtroopers) at the helm.

In the course of 24 hours, 7,500 Jewish-owned businesses were smashed and their goods looted. About 30,000 Jewish males were arrested and sent to concentration camps while mobs of SA marauded and spurred onlookers to join in the frenzy.

More than 200 synagogues were burned in a matter of hours and Jewish cemeteries were desecrated throughout Germany. At the end of the rampage, approximately 90 Jews had been killed.

Kristallnacht, or Night of Broken Glass, was much more ominous than the name suggests. It signified the end of hope for peace that many clung to following the Munich Agreement in September 1938 and the beginning of the Holocaust for the Jewish people.

Now the lens focused more narrowly on the Jews as the primary target for forced emigration, deportation and, ultimately, extermination.

While many German citizens looked on as the assault took place and disapproved, few took action. However, it is important to highlight the courage of those people and communities who refused to be swept up in the whirlwind of destruction and defied the pressures of the Nazi Party.

Police Lieutenant Wilhelm Krützfeld, the commander of a police precinct in Berlin, drew his pistol on an angry mob that was prepared to set a synagogue ablaze and declared his intention to protect the integrity of the synagogue as a historic landmark.

Additionally, civic leaders and local clergy stood up against rioters in at least three German villages.

How do we apply the lessons of Kristallnacht today? Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel often states that "memory is a shield." Memory can only be utilized as a shield when it translates to action by using memory to embolden us as individuals to protect others from having the suffering and persecution of the past revisited upon them.

Wiesel goes on to say, "Forgetting means the end of compassion, the end of civilization and the end of humanity."

As we remember Kristallnacht and the Holocaust, we can honor the victims by striving to build a moral community where humanity is cherished and where individuals find the courage to step outside of their comfort zones and beyond their immediate communities to confront intolerance and hate.

Let us actively remember Kristallnacht by marshalling the moral force to hold world leaders accountable for their continued inaction on genocide and push to achieve a level of political will that transforms slogans like "Never Again" and "Not on My Watch" into an internationally upheld standard.