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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | November 18, 2013 09:29 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Mark B. Cohen |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Resolution Recognizing the 75th Anniversary of Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, in Pennsylvania |
In the near future, I plan to introduce a resolution recognizing the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht. A pogrom authorized by Nazi party officials, Kristallnacht marked the beginning of Hitler’s violent war against the Jews – his campaign for a “final solution” to the so-called “Jewish problem.” Seventy-five years ago, on the night of November 9 – 10, 1938, Nazi paramilitaries marched throughout the towns and villages of Germany and Austria smashing Jewish storefronts, arresting Jewish men en masse, ransacking Jewish homes, burning books and littering the streets with sacred Judaic texts. Throughout the two-day wave of violence, paramilitary forces destroyed or damaged hundreds of synagogues and thousands of businesses owned by Jews, murdering at least 91 Jews, and sending another 30,000 to concentration camps. Total lives lost, including murders, suicides and concentration camp deaths, ranged between 2,000 and 2,500. The shards of broken glass from the windows of synagogues, Jewish homes, and Jewish-owned businesses ransacked during the violence that littered the streets led to the pogrom’s name of Kristallnacht, commonly translated as the Night of Broken Glass. This event proved to be a crucial turning point in the Holocaust, marking a shift in policy of removing Jews from Germany and German-occupied lands to murdering millions of people, and was a tragic precursor to the Second World War. The lessons of Kristallnacht highlight how hate can proliferate and erode our societies and serves as a reminder that we must advance global efforts to ensure such barbarism and mass murder never occurs again. Please join me in recognizing the anniversary of Kristallnacht by cosponsoring this important resolution. If you have any questions, please contact Kathy Seidl of my office at 787-4117 or kseidl@pahouse.net. Thank you. |
Introduced as HR569