🔴9th of November – 85th Anniversary of the Kristallnacht
Late in 1938, Nazis across Germany attacked Jewish people and their homes, businesses and places of worship and arrested about 30,000 Jewish men. The attacks became known as Kristallnacht – the “Night of Broken Glass” , but the events of Nov. 9-10, went beyond the broken glass of Jewish-owned shops on the streets of German cities and has rightly been called a major turning point in the history of the Holocaust.
When commemorating this day though, even in its 85th anniversary, we must remember and we must be able to see that it was the culmination of a long-term process, which constantly fuelled and normalised hate through propaganda and manipulation. It didn’t happen in a void.
Since 1992 we remember the victims of the ‘Kristallnacht’ pogrom and fascism throughout history while raising awareness about the dangers of nationalism, populism, antisemitism, right-wing extremism, and neo-fascism today.
Because while the number of outright fascists may be relatively low, the constant dissemination of xenophobic messages in media and politics contributes to the normalization and acceptance of hatred.
Society, in many instances, remains silent, and people become bystanders to their own fate and that of European society as a whole.
We must resist the urge to remain complacent
The key to the growth of fascism, nationalism, antisemitism, and xenophobia lies in the fertile ground where they can sow their seeds of hatred and irrationality.
Today more than ever we are seeing the devastating effects of #propaganda, how it intoxicates public spaces preventing any possible attempt at #dialogue and #peace, with too many actors benefitting from such operations and aggravating an already desperate climate. Today like yesterday, many different groups are the target of such operations. LGBTQI+, people with disabilities, Muslims, Roma. Too many are targets.
We have already shared the dangers of such operations, with digital tools used to alter images, videos and to create articles and stories that are inundating social media platforms, further dividing people, instigating violence and discrimination. That’s why we should be vigilant, learn from history, and stand together to deconstruct and challenge such narratives wherever we meet them.
We refuse to repeat the horrors of the past, and we will not allow any group to rise above all others.
This year our efforts are translated also in the newest publication of our leaflet Standing Strong Against the Shadows of the Past, which contains our mission and vision surrounding 9th of November and our 30 yo work in this field.
We are also committed to the implementation of the Informal Participatory Education on Holocaust (IPEH) project, which aims to involve young people in innovative and creative ways of remembrance of the Holocaust (including Sinti/Roma and LGBT victims), and we are currently working on the local stories coming from Hungary through the social media project of Megsemmisítve.
The possibilities to take actions are many, we just need to take action and #stayunited, to step out from the shadows of indifference!
