(Jewish Group) Holocaust survivor reflects on antisemitism rise 83 years after Kristallnacht

Ruth Zimbler was just 10 years old when she watched the Nazis burn down her synagogue in Austria. As the flames blazed, her great aunt asked the firefighters on the scene why they were just standing there. “We have orders to let the synagogue burn,” they said.

The targeted attacks towards Zimbler’s family that night, just for being Jewish, did not stop there. Her apartment was stripped bare of everything but the furniture and a pair of candlesticks that her family used on Shabbat.

This horrific day became known as Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass.” It was wave of antisemitic violence coordinated by the Nazi regime that wrecked havoc on Jewish life in Nazi Germany.

Nazis vandalized Jewish homes, burned down hundreds of synagogues and shattered the glass in storefronts of Jewish-owned businesses — hence the name “Kristallnacht.” The Night of Broken Glass was a turning point for Jews in Germany.

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