• anon6789@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I went to a decent school and we never covered this. I’ve since learned that it happened, and the pivotal event it was, but for anyone else this quick Britannica summary shows its significance in not too many words:

    Just before midnight on November 9, Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller sent a telegram to all police units informing them that “in shortest order, actions against Jews and especially their synagogues will take place in all of Germany. These are not to be interfered with.” Rather, the police were to arrest the victims. Fire companies stood by synagogues in flames with explicit instructions to let the buildings burn. They were to intervene only if a fire threatened adjacent “Aryan” properties.

    In two days and nights, more than 1,000 synagogues were burned or otherwise damaged. Rioters ransacked and looted about 7,500 Jewish businesses, killed at least 91 Jews, and vandalized Jewish hospitals, homes, schools, and cemeteries. The attackers were often neighbours. Some 30,000 Jewish males aged 16 to 60 were arrested. To accommodate so many new prisoners, the concentration camps at Dachau, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen were expanded.

    After the pogrom ended, it was given an oddly poetic name: Kristallnacht—meaning “crystal night” or “night of broken glass.” This name symbolized the final shattering of Jewish existence in Germany. After Kristallnacht, the Nazi regime made Jewish survival in Germany impossible.

    Take this is conjunction with Sheriff what’s his face saying they need to document everyone with Kamala signs out front, and you can see some dots start to connect why people are feeling stressed.

    • itslilith
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      2 days ago

      Just for added context, in Germany, it’s pretty frowned upon to call it (Reichs-)Kristallnacht, because that’s a euphemism used by the Nazis. We usually can it Reichspogromnacht (approximately translated to ‘night of the pogrom in the realm’).

      And it’s absolutely terrifying to see that Trump is gearing up for the same over there with you. Stick together in solidarity, I wish you nothing but the best in the coming months. These are dangerous times

      • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 day ago

        it’s pretty frowned upon to call it (Reichs-)Kristallnacht, because that’s a euphemism used by the Nazis.

        I did not know this. Thanks for adding context. I think it’s neat how you get to smash words together in German to make new words and it just works.

      • anon6789@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I feel a bit of frustration with Germany, as it seemed their treatment of things after WWII was much better than what we did after our revolution and civil war, yet you all seem to still be getting caught up in the worldwide push to the authoritarians again anyway. It really makes me wonder what a society has to do to keep things from constantly drifting back to wanting a stiff hierarchy or single party rule.

        I’ve generally avoided discussing it much, because it feels wrong, but I’ve really wondered if I should note which people, and especially businesses, in the community are brandishing all this Trump and Co stuff, because I don’t feel I should necessarily forget who these people are. Not for any kind of public dispersal or to threaten anyone, but just so I know who I’m living around and spending money with, since many of my friends and family are of groups that would potentially be treated harshly should they ever get what they’re calling for.

        I don’t feel that it’s impossible for people to change, but if they’ve been along for the ride this long, I do feel they believe in some pretty scary things that make me uncomfortable. I suppose they feel somewhat the same about us, but I’ve yet to see anything legitimate to be scared of from what counts as The Left in America. Oooo, education, healthcare, and hospitality to you no matter who you are…how scary! Meanwhile they want to kill our agencies in charge of public safety and education and push us back into the 1850s with human rights.

        I never thought I would see a situation like this here, and it really breaks my heart. Much of my family and my fiance’s family are Trump supporters, and it has become easy to feel alone and unwelcomed. I really hope all of us can push back on this, no matter where we are.

    • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 days ago

      He might need the Night of the Long Knives first, to weed out any cops who might still be (small d) democrats.

      This timeline sucks and I want to get out.

      • anon6789@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Yeah, I sadly have a hard time imagining him having difficulty getting the Punisher skull crew to rat on the decent ones.

  • shalafi@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Sad that so many are talking about The Purge, which this ain’t by any stretch, because they don’t have the education to know about Kristallnacht. We have forgotten history and are doomed for a repeat.

    • 𝚜𝚑𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚐@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      We just have to convert the horrors of humanity to simplistic pop-culture references.

      Even if they aren’t 1:1, they may stand a better chance of retaliation by the populace.

      • Kristallnacht: “…what?”
      • The Purge: “Oh, we ain’t havin’ none of that shit.”

      Depressing, concerning, and even infuriating… but pragmatic.

      Edit: grammar

    • pewter@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      I was going to assume he probably knows more about movies than world history, but I think according to Ivana he has read about some parts of World War II.