Yesterday (9.11.08) Hillary, Kelley and I walked down on Linzergasse hunting for a good restaurant for dinner. We then spotted something usual on the street: A candle, a rose and a piece of paper. With curiosity we bent down and read.
"Kristallnacht"
This is the story:
Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) was a pogrom in Nazi Germany on November 9–10, 1938. On a single night, 92 Jews were murdered and 25,000–30,000 were arrested and deported to concentration camps (though most will be released in a few weeks) as a part of Führer Adolf Hitler's anti-Semitic policy.
267 synagogues are desecrated and destroyed (almost all of the synagogues of Germany and Austria). Thousands of Jewish businesses and homes were ransacked. SS Security Service chief Reinhard Heydrich instructs security agencies to burn the synagogues unless German lives or property are endangered. Jewish businesses are looted and destroyed.
It marked the beginning of the systematic eradication of a people who could trace their ancestry in Germany to Ancient Rome and served as a prelude to the Holocaust that was to follow.
And there we were on Linzergasse... looking at the memorial. There were a few houses on the ally that belonged to jewish families that were arrested or murdered. I just thought about the shop with the broken glass at the entrance we walked pass earlier (I firstly thought it was some sort of vandalize which is odd of Salzburg... but think of it again it must be related to the event.) We found another memorial down the street. One rose per one life that was there... guitless and helpless.
"May we never forget what had happened," shined the black letters under the candle light.
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