Kristallnacht, otherwise known as the Night of the Broken Glass, was an organized attack, or pogrom, in Germany and Austria on Nov. 9-10, 1938, against the Jewish people simultaneously occurring throughout the land. It was the first obvious state-sponsored mass violence against the Jews of Nazi Germany and marked a major escalation of existing antisemitism in the land.
The name Kristallnacht comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after the windows of Jewish-owned stores, buildings and synagogues were smashed. During these horrific acts of hatred, Jewish homes, hospitals and schools were ransacked as Hitler’s henchmen demolished buildings – and lives – with sledgehammers.
Fast forward a few months to spring 1939. Bonn, Germany, home to a 6-year old boy, Hal, and his parents, Karl and Betty, was the scene of heroism that saved the lives of this Jewish family.
Karl had served in the German army in World War I with a man, who, years later, would become an SS agent in the Nazi Party. The two had become friends during the first war and remained close through the years. This man put his life on the line, falsifying immigration papers that enabled little Helmut and his embattled parents to escape. They left Germany and boarded a ship. Three months later, they landed in British Honduras, modern-day Belize. Eleven months later, they made their way to Daytona Beach, Fla.
Heroic indeed! While Hal and his parents escaped, the remainder of that family were, soon after, murdered by the Nazis.
That is the story of my father Hal and his parents, my grandparents, Karl and Betty Stamm. I’m a second-generation Holocaust survivor.
There is no denying the trauma of the Holocaust and subsequent antisemitism that touched my family even in post-war America. My father told me of being bullied as a Jewish young man growing up in the deep South in the 1940s and 1950s. Growing up in Daytona Beach, his response to getting knocked down repeatedly for simply being Jewish was to come up swinging!
As a boy in middle school myself, in St. Petersburg, Fla., I can remember my mother having to occasionally pick me up at school when I served a detention for fighting. Fighting? Yes. You see, when this vertically challenged Jewish boy was bullied, I, like my dad, responded with fists flying!
As a Jewish believer in Jesus since 1987, I’m called to fight a different kind of fight today – the good fight of faith. As the Apostle Paul exhorted Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:12, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”
With antisemitism raging and continuing to escalate around the world, it’s important to remember and never forget the horrors of Holocaust. On this day, Holocaust Remembrance Day, as one who is fully Jewish and fully Christian, I join with millions of people around the world who take a stand and declare the tragic truth of this devilish dark era of human history, so that the world will never forget.
Today, we who fight the good fight of faith, remember “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).
In the spiritual war that is raging, it is the truth that exposes error and ultimately it will be the truth that will rule and reign supreme.
On this day when we memorialize the victims of the Holocaust, there will be some who, amazingly, will seek to deny or minimize its reality and horror. As a Christian, I understand this is simply another demonically inspired manifestation of antisemitism. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
God will keep His covenant promises to Israel and the Jewish people, for He is faithful.
May we all who call on the name of the Lord also be faithful – to take a moment this day to pray, in remembrance and recognition:
Father God, we come to you with heavy hearts, remembering the 6 million Jewish souls murdered during the Holocaust. In the horrors of that history, when so many groups were targeted, we recognize the evil in our world and ask that you equip us to stand against it.
Let us not forget this horrific event in our history just as you have not forgotten the Jewish people in your eternal plan. Thank you that you have overcome this evil through your Son, Jesus Messiah who makes atonement for sin and gives us everlasting life. Amen.
Learn more about Larry Stamm Ministries at www.larrystamm.org.
