Commemoration on 9 November

80 years after the state terror and the social exclusion of the Jewish population in Germany, we commemorate the victims of the pogroms of 9 November 1938: "It happened before everyone's eyes, they were all perpetrators," Rabbi Andreas Nachama describes the situation at the time. "November 9 in the 20th century is a fateful day in German history, a day of learning. We remember this past in order not to fall back, in order to learn for the future." The destruction of synagogues and the plundering of businesses were the harbingers of the systematic murders of European Jews.  

On the occasion of the anniversary, Rabbi Nachama invited Imam Kadir Sanci and Propst Christian Stäblein of the Protestant Church to a Shabbat service in his parish of Sukkat Shalom on the evening of 9 November. Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum, President of the North American Board of Rabbis, will also be present.

"I want to remember! I want to learn," says Imam Kadir Sanci, like Nachama in the Presidium of the House of One Foundation. "For us, the citizens of Germany, November 9th is a day of fate, which above all stands for the indescribable suffering of our Jewish fellow citizens. I want to do what I can so that this story of suffering is not repeated, neither for Jews nor for any other human being".

The Propst Stäblein attaches his duty to the words: "Eighty years after Jewish churches burned in this country, one of the most important tasks is that we remember, not forget.

The Propst Stäblein agrees with that: "Eighty years after Jewish churches burned in this country, one of the most important tasks is that we remember, not forget."

The day before, after an hour of remembrance in the Berlin House of Representatives and a silent march from the Topography of Terror Memorial to the Memorial of the Murdered Jews of Europe, the Holocaust Memorial, the names of all 57,000 Jewish Berliners murdered under Nazi rule had been read out. The governing mayor, Michael Müller (SPD), said on this occasion: "History does not repeat itself, but we have every reason to learn from it". In Germany, the equality of all people, their human rights and their human dignity were the yardstick for living together. "Therefore, there is not only no place for anti-Semitism, but also no place for anti-Christian or anti-Muslim prejudices or for homophobic and misogynistic attitudes.