Remembering Kristallnacht 70 years later Published May 6, 2008 By Capt. Joshua Kuntzman 505th CCW HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. -- A Holocaust Remembrance event will be held at the base chapel May 14 at 9 a.m. The guest of honor will be Dr. Gail Wallen from the Jewish Family and Children's Center in Tucson, Ariz. Guest speakers include Wanda Wolosky and Walter Feiger who survived the Holocaust and will speak about their experiences. The U. S. Congress established the Days of Remembrance as our nation's annual commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust. The theme for the 2008 observance is "Do not stand silent: remembering Kristallnacht 1938." Between Nov. 9 and 10, 1938, roughly 1,000 Jewish people lost their lives due to atrocious actions by the Nazis. In addition to the deaths, thousands of Jewish store-owners were looted. Cemeteries and sacred artifacts were desecrated. The word kristallnacht literally translates to night of crystals, which was meant by the Nazis to represent the alleged wealth of the Jewish people. Within the Jewish community, the term has come to be more commonly translated as night of broken glass. This more common translation is meant to illustrate the vast amounts of broken glass from windows of Jewish-owned homes, shops, community centers and synagogues, which were destroyed during the Nazi pogrom. These state-sanctioned, anti-Jewish riots took place in cities all across Germany. While there were many horrendous actions carried out against Jewish communities during these two days, there are also many stories of Germans performing heroic deeds to help protect the Jewish people and their property. One such story, according to an article from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Web site, discusses the actions of police Lt. Wilhelm Krutzfeld, the Berlin police precinct commander. Lieutenant Krutzfeld prevented the Oranienburger Strasse Synagogue from being destroyed by rioters attempting to set it on fire. In addition to Lt. Krutzfeld's actions, there are many other examples of German citizens doing their part to help the Jewish community. To learn more about Kristallnacht, or the Holocaust in general, visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Web site, www.ushmm.org. The site contains links to other sites and an abundance of articles on the Holocaust. While the main focus of the Web site is the Jewish Holocaust of World War II, it also provides links to current issues such as the events in Darfur, Chechnya, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.