(8k) Kristallnacht. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Situation today.

Kristallnacht, in English known as Night of the Broken Glass

On 9 November 2023, the world, or at least the West, remembered that 85 years ago Kristallnacht happened. It was on the night of 9 to 10 November 1938 that Hitler ordered thugs that included SA and SS officers, and some Hitler youth and German citizens to attack synagogues and other Jewish property, while police and fire officers were ordered not to intervene unless non-Jew property was under threat to burn down. About 90 Jews died, 30,000 were imprisoned in concentration camps where more Jews died, and over 7,000 Jewish businesses were destroyed. 

Why did this happen? Hitler used a specific incident to allow the terrible night to happen. The pretext for this event happened in Paris, France. Here a young in Germany born Polish Jewish man Herschel Grynszpan murdered the German diplomat Ernst vom Rath because he was angry about Germany's anti-Jewish laws and the resulting bad treatment of Jews (although some people think he was a gay guy who murdered his partner when their relationship ended). In 1938, these laws resulted in the expulsion of Polish Jews from Germany, including those born in Germany, while Poland renounced the citizenship of Polish Jews living abroad. And thus Polish Jews weren't allowed to live in Germany, while Poland refused most entry. The parents of Mr Grynszpan wrote to their son about their bad treatment, and so their son decided to kill a German diplomat. 

It was now clear for everyone who wanted to know that Hitler and his scum mainly targeted Jews, although we should not forget the other groups that he ordered to destroy such as people on the left, Gypsies and LGBTQ people. Still, many countries tightened their rules for admission of Jews, so many Jews were not able to leave Germany. Coincidence or not, but although today's conspiracy theory followers recognise Hitler as an evil person, they still target the same groups of people. 

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 

Warsaw is a city in Poland. In the 1930s, a large Jewish population of over 3 million Jews lived in Poland. This large population was the result of earlier aggression in Russia that drove Jews out of Russia. The musical (film) "Fiddler on the roof" shows this history, whereby Fiddler is a metaphor for survival in a life of uncertainty, while it also represents that tradition to hold onto in a changing world. Indeed, many people in today's world can't cope easily with the fast changing world, and thus reverse to their tradition and conspiracy theories of how a certain elite wants to destroy the world as they know it.

During those same 1930s, nazi Germany invaded Poland to occupy it. By 1939, the German authorities started to remove Jews from their homes to concentrate them in ghettos such as in Warsaw that became the largest with up to 400,000 people packed on a 3.3 km2 area. These ghettos were sealed off from the outside world so thousands of people, mainly Jews, died here from starvation and diseases, while nazi Germans looked, didn't help the people, and were temporarily satisfied with the result. 

However, later Germans deported Jews to the Majdanek and Treblinka extermination camps. During the summer of 1942 a quarter of a million, thus 250,000 Jews were deported to these extermination camps. The remaining Jews in Warsaw decided to act, and so they built bunkers and smuggled weapons and explosives into the ghetto. Right-wing and left-wing Jews joined forces and trained together. 

In January 1943, there was a minor uprising after, again, more Jews were deported. But on 19 April 1943 the real uprising started when Jews refused to surrender to the German commander. This rebellion ended on 16 May 1943 whereby 13,000 Jews were killed, versus 17 Germans killed and about 90 wounded. It was the largest uprising by Jews in the whole of WWII. As they lost, something they expected to happen, the remaining Jews were deported, and few survived the extermination camps. Indeed, the German commander used this uprising as an excuse to order the total destruction of the ghetto to end what he considered were terrorists. 

After the war, Jews promised they would never again be defenseless people who would allow themselves to be slaughtered. And rightly so. They also had every right to hate Europeans, and certainly Germans. 

Note: Later in the summer of 1944, the Polish Resistance organised an uprising against the Germans that failed as Stalin halted his Red Army so any future resistance against the USSR would be broken, and much of Warsaw was destroyed before the Germans retreated. The Polish suffered severely at the start, during, and end of WWII, only to be living afterwards under brutal communist USSR dictatorship. Still, it seems many Polish didn't learn a lesson from history as they created LGBTQ-free areas because their saint Pope John-Paul II who hated LGBTQ people and preached against them whenever he could, and so did Hitler and Stalin. Still, during the last Polish elections, the political party that supported those areas didn't manage to have another majority as societies progress towards inclusion.

Remember the fallen soldiers, and everyone, of WWI and WWII to prevent it will happen again

Today, and since WWII: Israel in Palestine

Since nearly 2000 years, Jews hope to return to their homeland. Indeed, in the year 136, after decades of fights between Jews and Roman occupiers of Palestine, but also between Jews from before the year zero, and after Roman soldiers were again slaughtered in an ambush, the Roman emperor Hadrian was fed-up with the fights, and ordered Jews to leave the area. Hadrian is still hated for this by Jews although he didn't kill them but allowed them to live in the rest of the world, while many historians consider Hadrian as one of the five good Roman emperors. It was not the first time Jews were thrown out the country as scriptures inform even their own god sent strangers to punish. 

In the more recent history, and already at the end of the 19th century, thus long before WWII as a result of antisemitism in Russia and Europe, but certainly after the horrors of WWII ended, Jews wanted to live again in what is known by them as the Promised Land. Indeed, Jews had every reason to fear, even hate Europeans, and leave that continent. 

As a result, increasing numbers of Jews moved to a country where other people, i.e. Palestinians lived. Instead that Jews were grateful that they could settle in a place outside Europe, they oppressed the local people. An area was agreed in 1948 so Palestinians and Jews could live peacefully next each other in a two-state solution. But, since the founding of Israel, Jews and Palestinians fought each other, resulting in hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees, just like the Jews before in Europe. 

Over decades, Jewish settlers (terrible people even towards other Jews when they don't behave as the settlers demand, such as against Jewish women and against Jewish LGBTQs - you can replace the word "Muslim" before "extremist" with "Jew" and even "Christian" as their extremism is directed to the same people, and each other) continued to attack Palestinians to remove them from their homes and land to drive them together in the West Bank and Gaza Strip so settlers could built settlements on the land they conquered; hence the settlements are called colonies. 

Certainly the Gaza Strip can be called a today's "Warsaw Ghetto" where about 2.2 million people are locked behind walls whereby Israel controls who can go in and out (strange that Hamas could attack nearly unhindered, as if Israel had retreated border control). Thus, Gazans had to build tunnels to import food and medicines, and indeed also weapons as imprisonment radicalised, and still does. Also the West Bank is not trouble free because, even as it has an elected government that Israel claims to recognise, even that government is not free to do as it wishes without approval by Israel. And Jewish settlers continue to grab land from the Palestinians because they want to reclaim the land their ancestors left 2000 years ago and establish an ethnical pure ultraorthodox Jewish country, with Jerusalem as capital and a Temple rebuild on the ruins of the current buildings. Only in April 2023 Jews challenged Muslims by going near the Al-Aqsa mosque, and again as recent as October 2023 (while also targeting Christian symbols), thus days before the Hamas attack that killed around 1400 Jews. 

After 75 years, Hamas militants broke out of Gaza Strip and killed between 1200 and 1400 Israelis, including children, while they took more than 200 hostages and about 126,000 Israelis were displaced. Of course, this is not acceptable unless for those with a pathology of the brain, and thus actions were expected. But, from history we know that, each time that people are second, third or fourth class people (thus Untermenschen), they will react. Look to the story in the Old Testament of Jews who were slaves in Egypt, and started to rebel. The sad fact is that, also in those days when the Hebrews returned to Palestine, they started to kill the local population. After thousands of years, do Jews learn nothing from their history why people fear, and hate them? And don't forget, even Moses became so angry he ordered the killing of thousands of Jews, after he told God not to kill them all because Yahweh became angry.

Another comparison can be made with South Africa where black resistance against white apartheid was called terrorism. This terrorism originated because black people no longer accepted that white people had privileges that were denied to black people. Today, black people become presidents in South Africa, although many white people still have more privileges than black people as they didn't share properly wealth among each other. 

And thus, the rebellion by Hamas could be expected one day or another year. Now this happened at a time when an extreme right Israeli government rules Israel against which even many Israelis protested. The attack seems to be used by this government as an excuse to remove Palestinians from their destroyed homes so Israel can grow further. Even hospitals are bombed and left without power so people die, while hospitals should be allowed to continue such as provision of food, medicines and energy. Yes, also Jews can commit crimes against humanity and, as Israel calls it war, it can commit war crimes. The UN Secretary-General is critical to Israel's actions and want a ceasefire to stop the killing of innocent people, while Israel calls for the removal of the Secretary-General. Extremist Christians, and in general extreme right, support Israel to crunch the Palestinians; however, be careful as those who don't bother the dead of Palestinian children may one day not bother the dead of Jewish children as history proved. Because extremist Christians want the Temple exclusively for their own religion (more about this below). But, to rebuild the Temple, the Al-Aqsa Mosque stands in the way; I fear serious troubles when that building needs to go.

Germany may think it is easy for them to choose the side of Israel as most of the millions of Jews killed during WWII was done by nazi Germany. However, as Jews went to Israel because of what happened to them in Europe under nazi Germany, Germany is also responsible for the Palestinians who suffer since the arrival of those Jews. Because of its own history, Germany must recognise when countries go too far and may commit crimes against humanity, such as people are made homeless because their houses are bombed. Or, have German leaders learned little, and now allow the murder of non-Jews in Israel for as long as Jews leave Germany for Israel? Telling Israel to not bomb innocent Palestinians does not equal antisemitism; a more targeted reaction against Hamas should be defended while the current aggression may be perfect to recruit even more Hamas fighters to revenge children, family and friends who died. This article should be read by German, and other politicians as it is the opinion of a Jewish woman who is not extreme right and accepts the fact that Palestinians have a right to exist. When that is denied, than extremism rules. A two-state solution as in the years after King Solomon may be the first step towards peace as it seems that, whenever Jews want their own country they start to fight. And a recognition that Jews and Muslims differ less than they want to know is also important. As the above, and other articles show, Jews who call for a ceasefire are considered to support the wrong side. In the USA, Jews in favour of a ceasefire have been arrested, this may some consider as antisemitism.

I also understand the danger that anger about the disproportionate punishment of Palestinians by Israel for what Hamas did at the start of October may reverse into antisemitism, and already higher numbers of anti-Semitic actions are recorded, so people protested against antisemitism in France. When peace is not possible because a section of Jews don't want peace, more people may turn against Jews. And thus more Jews may go to Israel, and thus more space is needed to house them. Also anger among Muslims, towards their own elite who remains silent but also towards the West, is growing when they see what is done in the Gaza Strip, while often they have the impression no-one takes them serious, even when they are normal people (although, what can they expect when too often they blame others for their own terrorists?). But, being unmoved with the killing of thousands of Palestinian children, including babies in hospitals, suggest a pathology of the brain, just as monsters killed Jewish children and adults, and LGBTQ, Gypsies,... . On the other hand, also anti-Muslim sentiment grows as people are angry that too few Muslims condemn the killing of innocent Israelis by Hamas, while people remember how Muslims attacked the USA on 09/11/2001. Therefore, at least a ceasefire should be defended to protect civilians, even when that is unlikely at this moment. President Macron was right during his BBC interview when he said international laws concerning war and human rights should be respected. Actions against Hamas are justified, but in proportion. Will this bombing help Israel, even when it has removed any non-Jew? Probably not, as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have lost everything and know people who died, including thousands of children. How many people would accept this if it concerns them, and not become angry? We don't want that Jews and Palestinians will remain enemies for decades, if not centuries to come. Israel should become a future safe place for many. 

Concerning the unconditional support for Israel by US evangelicals, Jews should be careful as they drive Republican support for Israel, and at this moment Republicans are behaving strange to say the least. This support is for many for selfish reasons: they want a united Israel for Jews so Jews will rebuild the Temple, as prophesied. Ignore prophecies and you can't understand what is happening in the Middle East, and around the world, as God wants to prove His existence via evil. The article ends with exposing the dark side of this help. Indeed, a great terror is foretold that may happen if the image of the builder (maybe also a cross with Jesus) will be placed in that temple as is done in churches in Western countries. However, the religion of both Jews and Muslims forbid this (indeed, they are more similar than they want to admit as they are descendants of the same forefather Abraham/Ibrahim and fight over an heritage they don't want to share), so Jews and Muslims are likely to oppose this. Then those who refuse to convert to Christianity will not survive because, according Christian evangelicals, their messiah can only return when everyone alive converted to Christianity. Madness, indeed, but this is published on websites while people such as in the Tea Party and now Republicans talk about one Israel more openly. The current critics of Israel may be those who help them in those moments. Don't forget: when you have to bow for a statue, it is nothing more than a statue, while also land and a building can be worshiped as if they are gods. If a Temple may replace older monuments, than it should be for everyone, and not exclude most people. Only then can Jerusalem become the capital to hoist the future UN, when prophesies are correctly interpreted. Then Israel can become a safe place for people who escape war and hardship in their own country. 

In conclusion, this war shows that the UN Security Council needs to be reformed with the removal of the veto right as permanent members allow human right abuses by friends, or commit them. For the Jews, be careful or the prophecy will come true that after this war, you will live for a thousand years in shame for how you treated people, until the devil is released for a final time and you can lift the curse by defending the right side. Today, respect the people in the country you decided it should also be your country, as no people should be forced in exile as was done to Jews 2000 years ago. In the end, we are all humans and we should treat each other as such.