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Memories of Kristallnacht

(Jerusalem Post) Walter Bingham - During 1938, the Polish authorities became concerned that due to the increased persecution of Jews in Germany and Austria, some 60,000 to 100,000 Polish Jews in those countries would seek - or be forced - to return to Poland to escape Nazi persecution. So the Polish government legislated a citizenship law requiring Poles who had lived abroad for five years or more to obtain a stamp to revalidate their passport. But all Jews were refused this revalidation, leaving them stateless. When the Nazi regime learned of this, Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler ordered that all Polish Jews be immediately and forcefully repatriated to Poland. On Oct. 28, 20,000 Jewish men, women and children were arrested, hurriedly packed just one suitcase, and were transported in sealed trains to the Polish border, my own father among them. When armed German guards with dogs drove them to the crossing, the Polish guards closed the border and received the order: No Jews. After 3 days the Poles were forced to accept them. On the night of Nov. 9, all synagogues in Germany, Austria and the by-now Nazi occupied Sudetenland in western Czechoslovakia were set alight, 7,500 Jewish shops and other property were destroyed and 30,000 Jewish men were taken to concentration camps.
2018-11-09 00:00:00
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