Kristallnacht vs Recent Anti-Semitic Attacks in France
Various Internet Sources
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, series of coordinated attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and Austria November 9–10, 1938, carried out by SA paramilitary and civilians. German authorities looked on without intervening. The attacks left the streets covered with broken glass from the windows of Jewish-owned stores, buildings, and synagogues. At least 91 Jews were killed in the attacks, and a further 30,000 arrested and incarcerated in concentration camps. Jewish homes, hospitals, and schools were ransacked, as the attackers demolished buildings with sledgehammers. Over 1,000 synagogues were burned (95 in Vienna alone), and over 7,000 Jewish businesses destroyed or damaged. The pretext for the attacks was the assassination of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan, a German-born Polish Jew in Paris, France. Kristallnacht was followed by further economic and political persecution of Jews, and is viewed by historians as part of Nazi Germany’s broader racial policy, and the beginning of the Final Solution and The Holocaust.
TODAY – Paris – Four were injured when a small package bomb exploded inside a kosher grocery store in a Paris suburb.
OTHER RECENT ATTACKS IN FRANCE
August 7, 2012 – Paris – A 17 year-old Jewish girl was severely beaten by an 18 year-old Arab girl at a mall in a Paris suburb. The attacker made anti-Semitic insults during the incident, including “Dirty Jew, I’m going to put you in the ground.” Police at the mall arrested the assailant.
July 20, 2012 – Paris – A synagogue was desecrated for the third time in 10 days, when vandals threw prayer books and shawls on the floor and shattered the building’s windows.
July 5, 2012 – Toulouse – A 17-year-old student of the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school, where four Jews were murdered by Mohammed Merah on March 19, was assaulted on a train going from Toulouse to Lyon. The two young men responsible for the attack were arrested.
June 8, 2012 – Sarcelles – An 18-year-old Jew was physically assaulted and had a phone stolen by assailants who were shouting anti-Semitic insults.
June 2, 2012 – Lyon – Three Jewish youth wearing skullcaps were assaulted while walking to a Jewish school for Shabbat services. A group of more than 10 assailants surrounded the youths chanting “dirty Jew,” and proceeded to attack them with hammers and bars, hitting two in the head and one in the arm.
March 26, 2012 – Paris – A 12-year-old Jewish boy was beaten outside the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in Paris by youths reciting anti-Semitic slogans. The boy was hit and punched in the back of his head as he left the school.
March 19, 2012 – Toulouse – Four Jews were shot and killed at the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school by an armed terrorist on a motorcycle, later identified by authorities as Mohammed Merah. Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, 30, and his two children Aryeh, 6, and Gabriel, 3, were killed as they were entering the school premises. Merah then entered the school, continuing to shoot at students and faculty, and eventually set his sights on 8-year-old Miriam Monsonego, the daughter of the school’s principal, whom he chased down and killed. Merah is also believed to be responsible for the killing of three French soldiers the previous week. In a phone call to a French television station, Merah stated that he targeted the Jewish school to avenge the killing of children in Gaza. Reports indicate that Merah traveled to and received training in Pakistan and Afghanistan and identified with the terrorist organization Al Qaeda. On March 22, following a 32-hour standoff with French police, Merah was killed in his apartment complex.
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