The 9th Of November: From Kristallnacht To Trump

[Behind the Aegis]

When Hitler moved to Munich from his home country of Austria, he was a loner — a failing artist who had spent his recent years selling painted postcards on the streets of Vienna. It was a perfect storm of events that led him to power in 1933.

World War I had left Germany weak, broke and with a bruised ego. In 1919, Hitler found the German Workers’ Party, a small group of men who spent most of their time talking about how much better life was before the war. He stepped in as leader. In 1923, he was jailed and it was there that he met Rudolf Hess who ghostwrote Hitler’s "Mein Kampf," the infamous Nazi handbook.

When we speak of World War II, we often focus on a story that begins in 1939 and ends in 1945. Looking at history in such a limited scope is counterproductive to learning from the past.

Hitler did not introduce anti-Semitism into Europe. As early as the year 306, there were anti-Jewish decrees. World War I had actually helped Jews assimilate into Germany, similar to the way the world wars helped immigrants and African-Americans in the United States. What Hitler did was change anti-Semitism from religious and cultural prejudice to racism.

November 9, 1938 became known in Germany as Kristallnacht, or "The Night of Broken Glass." This was the first major action of the Holocaust and it was five years after Hitler gained power. By this time, Hitler had spent so many years spewing anti-Semitic rhetoric to the German people that it was easy to encourage the masses to act violently.

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The Eisenach synagogue in Germany, destroyed by the Nazis during Kristallnacht on Nov. 9, 1938. (Wikimedia Commons)

[Thunderbeast]

1. November 9, 1989.....

The Berlin wall came down.


November 9, 1952

Sorry, that's by birthday.....Couldn't resist.