Friday, November 07, 2008

Kristallnacht remembered at Barry University in Miami Shores

BY JAWEED KALEEM
jkaleem@MiamiHerald.com
Seventy years ago this week, one of the first coordinated campaigns of the Holocaust began in Germany and Austria.

It was the night of Nov. 9, and the Nazi regime had alerted police officers and firefighters to stand by for two nights as more than 1,000 synagogues were burned or damaged, thousands of Jewish businesses were looted, and at least 91 Jews were killed, while 30,000 were arrested and later sent to concentration camps.

Thursday afternoon, more than 100 students and faculty members at Barry University in Miami Shores gathered around candlelit tables to observe the massacre that came to be called Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass.

''Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it,'' said Rabbi Solomon Schiff of the Rabbinical Association of Greater Miami, flanked by Israeli and American flags. ''Hopefully, we've learned our lesson.'' He reminded the audience of history's parallels to today, citing genocide in places such as Darfur, as well as racial and religious discrimination in the United States. He wasn't speaking only to the uninitiated. Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>>

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