After the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Jews were subjected to increasingly discriminatory treatment accompanied by organised violence. On November 9th 1938, the Nazis started a pogrom against the Jews. Synagogues were set on fire, according to unitedagainstracism.org

Jewish shops had their windows smashed across the country, which gave rise to the name “Kristallnacht”, which freely translated means the Night of Broken Glass. Many Jews were physically attacked too. The “Kristallnacht” pogrom is usually seen as the symbolic beginning of the Holocaust.

On 9 November each year the UNITED network organises a European-wide campaign to commemorate the past and to protest against contemporary forms of fascism and antisemitism.

We call upon all organisations to take part in the campaign. Your group can organise concerts or conferences, send protest letters to policy-makers or find other ways of voicing your opinion. Just contact UNITED – we can provide you with information and campaign material and logos.

In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will attend a synagogue ceremony to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Nazi anti-Jewish pogrom on Crystal Night, reported BNT.