As antisemitic incidents rise, South Florida Jewish community recalls Kristallnacht

Eighty-five years ago this month, two nights of terror were unleashed on Jewish citizens in Germany — where thousands of businesses were destroyed, homes and synagogues ransacked and burned to the ground, tens of thousands of Jewish men put in concentration camps and nearly 400 murdered.

What’s become known as Kristallnacht, or night of broken glass, was done at the hands of the German military and street thugs under the direction of Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbles.

Police and firemen were warned in advance and ordered to do nothing to stop the mayhem.

Hundreds turned out to the Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach on Sunday night to commemorate the tragedy, one that takes on new relevance a month after more than 1,000 Jews were killed in Israel by Hamas and amid the ongoing Israeli military bombardment in Gaza.

“Even if the war in Israel was not happening, this is an extremely important commemoration for the Jewish community,” Sidney Pertnoy, immediate past chair of the Holocaust Memorial, told the Miami Herald.

“Eighty-five years ago, Kristallnacht was a foreshadowing of what was to come. And, now, it takes on extraordinarily more meaning because of what is happening in the world today,” Pertnoy said.

There were two men who survived the Holocaust at the ceremony — David Schaecter, 94, who founded the Holocaust Memorial, and 93-year-old Saul Blau.

Schaecter was an 11-year-old boy living in Slovakia when he and his brother Jacob were captured by the Nazis.

They were ultimately taken to Buchenwald concentration camp in Weimer, Germany, where more than 56,000 people were murdered by the Nazis.

Jacob was six years older than David, who credits him with saving his life many times. Nazis poisoned water Jacob drank, and he died.

Ever since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas, Schaecter said he feels like he’s reliving the horror of his youth.

“I have been in pain and agony for the last four weeks. I’m reliving my past,” he told the Herald. “I can’t sleep. I can’t cope.”

Not only was the attack the worst single act of violence against Jewish people since World War II, it has sparked a rise in reported antisemitic incidents around the world.

Blau’s childhood was marked with frequent fights against bigots who hated Jews in his native Hungary. Like Schaecter, he too survived Buchenwald as a young teen.

In 1948, he moved to the newly-formed Israel, eventually joining its Air Force.

Now, he talks to young people about the war at the Holocaust Memorial. In the wake of the Hamas attacks, though, he said he’s having something of an existential crisis about what he should tell them.

“Since Oct. 7, I’m not the same person anymore,” Blau told the audience. “I have a hard time. What should I talk to them about? What happened 85 years ago, or what is today’s painful happening?”

The mayors of Miami-Dade County and Miami Beach, both Jewish, also spoke at the event.

Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, while also tying the events of 85 years ago in Germany with the Hamas attacks and the ensuing antisemitism, struck a consolatory tone, calling on all sides to work towards peace.

“We gather here today at a pivotal moment, we all know, for our Jewish community, for Israel, for the world, the whole world, really,” Levine Cava said. “We are all, with bated breath, praying, hoping, working, for restoration of peace.”

Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber, however, was defiant. He started his speech by proudly declaring, “I am a Zionist,” to cheers from the crowd.

Gelber said Kristallnacht, Oct. 7, and ongoing Jewish persecution are all inextricably linked to multigenerational bigotry that people of all faiths and races should find abhorrent.

“We know what hate looks like as well as anyone in the history of the world. We’ve seen its ugly face. We’ve seen it lie in wait,” Gelber said.

“We’ve seen what hate can do. So, for us, as we commemorate the terrible events 85 years ago, we take this moment and do what Jews must do, and what non-Jews must do as well, which is to speak out against the hate and chase it back into the corners where it will remain as long as we keep it there,” Gelber said.

Miami Herald staff writer Aaron Leibowitz contributed to this report.