On the night of Nov. 9, 1938, a co-ordinated wave of violence aimed at Germany's and Austria's Jews swept those countries, leaving up to 92 dead in Germany (plus at least 30 more in Austria), synagogues destroyed, thousands more homes and businesses ransacked -- and people deported to concentration camps.

The event became known as Kristallnacht -- Crystal Night, or the Night of Broken Glass.

Many saw it as a prelude to the Holocaust.

Here's the Kristallnacht exhibition at the Yad Veshem website.

Here's the Wikipedia entry on Kristallnacht.

Here's an excerpt from the Holocaust encyclopedia about Josef Goebbels, the Nazis' propaganda chief, and Kristallnacht:

In November 1938, it was Goebbels' idea to exploit the murder of a German diplomat in France, by a Jewish youth (Herschel Grynszpan), in order to stage a violent pogrom against the Jews of Germany. He gave this violent outburst its cynical name Kristallnacht.

Most of the damage done on Kristallnacht was done by Nazi thugs, but there is evidence some ordinary Germans also participated in the violent orgy of hate.

To that end, here's today's AP story via Google News:

"We must not be silent" about condemning anti-Semitism, German chancellor Angela Merkel declared Sunday as Germany and Israel commemorated the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Nazi-incited riots against Jews.

With concerts, prayers and ceremonies, participants vowed to honor Kristallnacht victims with renewed vigilance. The riots are seen by many as the first step leading to the Nazis' systematic murder of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust.

Merkel recalled the Nov. 9, 1938 riots in which more than 91 German Jews were killed and more than 1,000 synagogues damaged, telling Germans that the lessons of the nation's past were crucial in confronting a current increase in xenophobia and racism.

"Anti-Semitism and racism are a threat to our basic values — those of democracy and respect for diversity and human rights," Merkel said at a ceremony in Germany's newly renovated largest synagogue. ...

Charlotte Knobloch, head of Germany's Central Council of Jews, told the gathering in Berlin's Rykestrasse Synagogue that Germans must fight against far-right extremism in all its forms.

"One must be sensitive to the quiet and less-quiet signals of anti-democratic developments in our country," said Knobloch, who lived through Kristallnacht as a girl in Munich, Germany.

One doesn't have to look far in cyberspace to find evidence of current anti-Semitism. From stormfront.org, a "white pride" website, some excerpts from a forum thread on Jewish crimes:

"I suspect many people are not aware of the extent of jewish criminal activities. Perhaps a thread detailing jewish crimes will provide illumination and clarification."

"Could we actually get this one going, folks? It just might help to open some eyes in the wider white world."

"This is exactly the thread that has the potential to grow to one million posts. My contributions will be mostly on the jewish mass-murderers of the first half of the 20th Century in Eastern Europe, an endless crime wave, closely followed by the originators of the Federal Reserve System is the USA. It is literally impossible to run out of subjects in these fields. It is easy like walking in the desert and just grabbing a handful of sand whenever one wants it."

"There are only 13.3 million Jews in world and still amount of crimes they commit is unbelievable. If you take any 13.3 million White population and compare it to Jewish population, you'll see that if there was any statistics of Jewish crimes, then Jews would easily win in numbers and odd crimes. But there are no real stats for Jewish crimes; we can only count crimes that come up, not the ones that can commit in silence."

"The rumor is that this practice has never yet ended: http://www.bloodpassover.com/

Discussion - Christians burned alive and White Children bleed to death by Jews

Of course, no one can discuss the Jews without discussing Jewish Lies and Jewish cruelty. The Paris riots of 1883 caused by the murder of Christian Children by Jews slaughtered for Passover Blood, and White Christian Children murdered in London by Jewish Rabis, is mentioned."

What can one say? The embers of hatred that powered the Nazis burn on in the souls of some today. :(