Right On!

November 7^th.

1938

To call world attention to the deprivation of Jews in Germany, the 17 year old Polish-Jew Herschel Grynzspan from Germany, walked into his nation’s embassy in Paris and shot the deputy ambassador.

Fifteen years earlier November 9^th 1923.

Hitler fomented the famous “Bierhall Putsch” in Munich, the official start of the Nazi movement, its birthday, celebrated by Nazis every year.

November 9^th 1938

The deputy ambassador died and Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, returned to the Bierhall in Munich to give a rallying speech that Germany should not go after Jews, but if Jews were to be terrorized as a result, the government would not intervene to stop the vigilantism.

Taking their cue, the Sturm Abteilung (SA Nazis) destroyed Jewish synagogues, Jewish businesses and homes across all of Germany.  Known today as Kristallnacht.

This wasn’t just the work of the Sturm Abteilung Nazis. 

Did you know that in March 1938, before these events, Poland passed a law that robbed Polish citizens of their nationality if they lived abroad for 5 years or more, intended to prevent 70,000 Polish Jews in Germany from returning home?

Germany cancelled all foreign resident permits months later, in August. 

Poland said no Jews of Polish ancestry will be allowed back in to Poland after the end of October that year.  Five days before that deadline the Gestapo was ordered to arrest and deport 12,000 Polish Jews, which included Herschel’s family.

Thank God for the life of the American woman, journalist Dorothy Parker, who told a national radio audience:

“They are holding every Jew in Germany as a hostage. Therefore, we who are not Jews must speak, speak our sorrow and indignation and disgust in so many voices that they will be heard. This boy has become a symbol, and the responsibility for his deed must be shared by those who caused it.”

There are lessons here.  We can play the role of each nation, Germany, Poland, and the U.S.  As Germany, who in America do you want to deport?  As Poland who in America do you want to block entry?  As America for which oppressed group do you speak? 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herschel_Grynszpan