History of Sorts

Shards of Night

The night fell hard, thick with hate,
A quiet flame at first, then fate—
Windows shattering, stars refract,
This broken sky: Kristallnacht.

Shards of glass, like fallen stars,
Glittered in streets, in shattered jars
Of silenced voices, splintered pleas,
Cries caught in cold November’s freeze.

How can silence carry sound?
Echoes in the streets abound—
The lives uprooted, torn apart,
The breath of fear, the beating heart.

In synagogue and shop, they came,
Fire lit the dark yet cold the flame.
Neighbors turned or hid their faces,
As dreams lay buried, one by one, erased.

Walls that once held laughter near,
Now crumbled, echoing with fear;
Books and scrolls once held so dear,
Fed flames that lit the night severely.

Where were the voices to protest?
Where was the shelter, warm and blessed?
A thousand shards cut deep into the skin,
But deeper still, they sank within.

To walk in daylight is to know
That even stars can fall below—
That faith can flicker, glass can break,
And darkness moves without a sound, like fate.

Kristallnacht, the night of glass,
A memory that shadows cast.
Hold close, remember, and defend,
Lest we repeat this night.

A Letter by a Firefighter who remembered “Crystal Night” in Laupheim (Germany)

“The alarm went off between 5-5:30 A.M., and as usual, I jumped on my bicycle towards the firehouse. I had a strange feeling when I got there and saw many people standing in front of it. I was not allowed to go into the firehouse to take the engines out or even to open the doors. One of my friends, who lived next to the synagogue whispered to me, “Be quiet – the Synagogue is burning; I was beaten up already when I wanted to put out the fire.”

Eventually, we were allowed to take the fire engines out, but only very slowly. We were ordered not to use any water till the whole synagogue was burned down. Many of us did not like to do that, but we had to be careful not to voice our opinions because “the enemy is listening.”

Only after one of the party members was worried that his house was going to catch fire were we allowed to use water. But, even then, we just had to stand and watch until the House of Prayers was reduced to rubble and ashes.

In the meantime, the marshalls rounded up the Jews and dragged them in front of the Synagogue, where they had to kneel down and put their hands above their heads. I saw with my own eyes how one old Jew was dragged down and pushed to his knees. Then, the arsonists came in their brown uniforms to admire the results of their destruction.

…Everyone seemed rather quiet and subdued… We had to stand watch at the Synagogue to make sure there were no more smoldering sparks. My turn was from 10-11 and 2-3 P.M. The brown uniforms paraded around to admire their work.

As I was watching the destroyed Synagogue and the frail old Jews, I wondered whose turn would be next!… When would it be our turn? Will the same thing happen to our Protestant and Catholic Churches!”

Sources

https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn504673

Pogrom: November 1938 – Testimonies from ‘Kristallnacht’

https://www.museumoftolerance.com/education/archives-and-reference-library/online-resources/kristallnacht/eyewitness-accounts-and-reminiscences.html

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/kristallnacht-night-broken-glass

Remembering Kristallnacht