South Florida Jewish community marks the tragedy of Kristallnacht
Eighty-six years ago, one night of terror in Nazi Germany changed the course of history for Jews everywhere.
Beginning on Nov. 9, 1938, Nazis set fire to synagogues, vandalized thousands of Jewish homes and businesses, and killed nearly 100 Jews. Around 30,000 others were arrested and sent to concentration camps in the aftermath. Many see it as the night that marked the start of the Holocaust.
That spectacle of violence is known today as Kristallnacht, or the “Night of Broken Glass” named after the smashed glass from Jewish-owned shops and synagogues that covered the streets after the violent attacks subsided. Before Kristallnacht, the discrimination of Jews in Nazi Germany had been primarily nonviolent. But, the night of November 9th forever changed that, foreshadowing the horror and murder that would soon come.
“It’s considered a major turning point in Nazi Germany’s treatment of the Jews, transitioning from social discrimination, propaganda and economic boycotts to outright violence and terror,” said Sheri Zvi, the CEO and executive director of the Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach.
This year, a community commemoration of Kristallnacht took place at Temple Israel of Greater Miami on Sunday November, 10 to mark the tragedy with prayer, songs and testimonies from Holocaust survivors. The Kristallnacht event normally takes place at the Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach, but due to major construction, the committee decided to relocate to Temple Israel.
The annual commemoration not only honors those who lost their lives to senseless violence, but serves as a solemn reminder to counter prejudice and antisemitism early, before it turns to acts of violence.
“It’s just always been a time for our community to reflect and to unite, and maybe to mobilize and wake up a little bit too,” said Jessica Katz, Holocaust Memorial Committee Chair.
At the event, Jack Waksal, a 100-year-old Holocaust survivor, spoke about the painful memories of his childhood. By the time he was 16, Waksal had lost his father, mother and sisters in the Holocaust.
Waksal, his parents and siblings — Yocheved, Yechiel and Bracha — all Orthodox Jews, grew up in Poland and lived a happy life before the war. Then in 1937, Waksal said he began noticing a change in how he and his Jewish friends and family were being treated. There were signs posted on Jewish shops saying “Don’t buy from Jews.”
Waksal recalled then a turning point in 1938, when discrimination against Jews turned into outright violence.
“They’re starting to burn up schools — Jewish schools, they’re starting to burn up synagogues, they’re breaking windows,” Waksal said. “They took hostages right away. They took me.”
Remembering the horrors of Germany’s invasion of Poland, Waksal spoke about the reality of living in Nazi-controlled ‘ghettos.’ There was rampant hunger, illness, unsanitary conditions and Jews were forced to wear a yellow ‘Star of David’ on their chests. Then the murders began.
“At the end of [1940], they liquidated the small ghettos, after that they took us to the camps,” Waksal said. 600 people — including women and children were murdered and the rest were taken to concentration camps.
Waksal recalled people being lined up in front of a massive grave, waiting to be executed. Tragically, when Waksal was just 14, his father was chosen to die in a lineup. Waksal pleaded with the German solider to take him instead of his father.
“When they took my father out, I said to the [soldier], ‘I’d like to go for this guy,’ he picked me up by my collar, pulled me out and pushed my father back,” he said.
Miraculously, Waksal and his friend escaped another lineup by pulling a solider down into one of the graves and running away to the forest. Another time at a labor camp, Waksal used wire cutters to cut the fence and ran into the forest with his brother and 17 other prisoners. Every time Waksal escaped, he questioned who else had to die in his place and why he was able to survive.
“I asked myself, why me?”
Kristallnacht, though it’s honored every year in South Florida, takes on new relevance in light of the ongoing war in the Middle East. It’s been just over one year since October 7, when Hamas militants stormed into Israel on horrific raids that left 1,200 people dead and another 240 taken hostage. In the aftermath of the tragedy, South Florida leaders showed unwavering support for Israel and vowed to fight back against acts of antisemitism.
During a time when anti-Jewish sentiments are on the rise, Zvi said it’s important now more than ever to educate the larger public, not just Jews, about what lead up to the Holocaust.
“For us it’s a reflection of the past, but also taking a stand against antisemitism and hatred with a hope for a more inclusive and compassionate society,” Zvi said.
‘Their stories bear repeating’
Kristallnacht is one of many programs organized by the Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach to help educate the public on the history of the Holocaust. Known for its striking sculpture of an enormous bronze outstretched arm, the center serves as a permanent memorial dedicated to the 6 million Jewish people who perished in the Holocaust.
But, the Memorial also doubles as a hub for Holocaust education. There are programs where students can meet with Holocaust survivors to ask questions, tours and free curriculum resources for teachers. The Memorial’s goal is to educate the masses on the how the Holocaust happened, to help ensure it never happens again.
“Especially as we get farther and farther away from the Holocaust, it’s taught less so and in different ways, and young people now are less aware of it than they were a few decades ago,” said Memorial Committee Chair Katz.
Recently, the Memorial acquired an organization called 3GMiami — it’s a project that helps third generation descendants of Holocaust survivors research and share their grandparents’ survival stories in classrooms — many which are non-Jewish — and community centers.
“It took incredible courage for our grandparents to talk about their own stories and to face each day with any shred of optimism. So for that alone, I think their stories bear repeating,” said Katz, who is a 3G speaker and one of the group’s founders.
Katz said the experience of researching her grandparents’ stories was challenging but transformative for her own understanding of her family’s past.
“It really propelled me to dive deep into my own grandmother’s story, which I only really knew about peripherally,” she said. “I got to dive deep into all these documents and records that my family had on file and nobody did anything about.”
Uncovering a Holocaust’s survivor’s story can be difficult. It’s not uncommon for a survivor to be silent about their experience for most of their life to avoid reliving the pain, said Katz. Plus, historical records on concentration camps can be limited. So every detail Katz learned, like the fact that her grandmother’s fear of dogs stemmed from the use of attack dogs by German soldiers, is important to her.
“It was really intense learning about it. It was intense talking about it throughout the training ... it was just very, very emotional. But it did feel closer to her, even though she’s not alive,” Katz said.
Katz said the current climate in America — the increasing divisiveness in politics and emboldened hate groups — has some resemblance to the past. She said synagogues and Jewish businesses, though on a much lesser scale, are still targets for vandalism today. A fact that, in 2024, scares her.
“We can’t deny that there are parallels, and that there is still a very real danger out there,” Katz said. “It’s such a weird time right now in our world and in our country, and I think we all just really need to look out for one another.”
This story was produced with financial support from Trish and Dan Bell and from donors comprising the South Florida Jewish and Muslim Communities, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.
This story was originally published November 9, 2024 at 5:30 AM.
