November 2008 Featured Books: 70th Anniversary of Kristallnacht
Always Remember Me
Kristallnacht
On the night of October 27, 1938, Zindel Grynszpan and his family were arrested by the German police, forced from their home and stripped of their possessions. Grynszpan—a Jewish shopkeeper who had lived in Germany for 27 years—and 17,000 other Jews of Polish citizenship were forced into relocation camps near the Polish border. Enraged by news of the expulsion, Zindel Grynszpan's seventeen-year-old son, who was living with relatives in Paris, walked into the German Embassy there and fired five shots at a junior diplomat, who died two days later.
The assassination provided Hitler with the pretext he needed to launch a massive pogrom against German Jews. Over the course of two nights, gangs of Nazi youth stormed Jewish neighborhoods, smashing the windows of Jewish businesses and homes, burning synagogues, looting shops and physically beating and terrorizing thousands of Jewish residents. More than 100 synagogues and thousands of Jewish homes and businesses were destroyed. Ninety Jews were murdered and more than 25,000 were arrested and deported to concentration camps.
The following day, an article entitled "A Black Day for Germany," published by The Times of London, stated, "No foreign propangandist bent upon blackening Germany before the world could outdo the tale of burnings and beatings, of blackguardly assaults on defenseless and innocent people, which disgraced that country yesterday."
November 9–10, 2008 marks the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, or the “night of broken glass,” which served as an ominous prelude to the dark years of the Holocaust that followed. ADL features two books this month that explain Kristallnacht and the Holocaust to children, and help them to understand the importance of remembering this painful chapter in history. Though not all children are developmentally or emotionally ready to learn about the Holocaust, parents and educators who choose to introduce this topic will find these books to be age-appropriate and useful tools for discussion.
Always Remember Me: How One Family Survived World War II Marisabina Russo (Author, Illustrator)
Rachel's Oma (grandmother) has two picture albums. In one the photographs show only happy times—from after World War II, when she and her daughters had come to America. But the other album includes much sadder times from before—when their life in Germany was destroyed by the Nazis' rise to power. For as long as Rachel can remember, Oma has closed the other album when she's gotten to the sad part. But today Oma will share it all. Today Rachel will hear about what her grandmother, her mother, and her aunts endured. And she'll see how the power of this Jewish family's love for one another gave them the strength to survive.
Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass: Igniting the Nazi War Against Jews Stephanie Fitzgerald (Author)
For one horrific night in November 1938, the streets of Germany and Austria were overrun with people bent on destruction. Members of the Nazi Party and their supporters destroyed close to 8,000 Jewish-owned businesses and homes. Hundreds of synagogues were burned to the ground, and more than 100 Jews were killed. This book describes the "night of broken glass" and also presents the historical events that led to the rise of Hitler, the Nazi Party's beliefs about race, and the horrible aftereffects of Kristallnacht.
Rachel's Oma (grandmother) has two picture albums. In one the photographs show only happy times—from after World War II, when she and her daughters had come to America. But the other album includes much sadder times from before—when their life in Germany was destroyed by the Nazis' rise to power. For as long as Rachel can remember, Oma has closed the other album when she's gotten to the sad part. But today Oma will share it all. Today Rachel will hear about what her grandmother, her mother, and her aunts endured. And she'll see how the power of this Jewish family's love for one another gave them the strength to survive.
