Germans commemorate ‘Night of Broken Glass’ terror as antisemitism is on the rise again

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER
Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — Across Germany, in schools, city halls, synagogues, churches and parliament, people are coming together to commemorate the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht — or the “Night of Broken Glass” — in which the Nazis terrorized Jews throughout Germany and Austria. Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Germany’s main Jewish leader, Josef Schuster, were set to speak at an anniversary ceremony Thursday at a Berlin synagogue that was attacked with firebombs last month. The commemoration of the pogrom comes at a time when Germany is again seeing a sharp rise in antisemitism following Hamas’ brutal attack that killed 1,400 people in Israel on Oct. 7 and triggered an ongoing war in Gaza.