54 | NOVEMBER 19 • 2020 

Looking Back

From the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History

accessible at www.djnfoundation.org

Somber Memories
F

or many years, memorials for 
Kristallnacht have been held in 
Detroit and around the world. I was 
reminded of this while reading a recent issue 
of the JN. There was a notice: the “March of 
the Living” encouraged the commemoration 
of Kristallnacht by inviting “individuals, 
institutions and houses of worship” around 
the world to keep their lights on during the 
night of Nov. 9 as a token of 
remembrance.
Most of us know the story 
of Kristallnacht. In English, 
“Crystal Night,
” or more 
to the point, “the Night of 
Broken Glass,
” refers to the 
extreme antisemitic violence 
in Germany on Nov. 9-10, 
1938. Hordes of brown-shirt-
ed Nazis and their civilian supporters went 
on a rampage, beating and arresting more 
than 30,000 Jews, leaving an estimated 7,000 
Jewish businesses and 267 synagogues in 
ruins. The shards of broken glass that glit-
tered in the streets led to the descriptor of 
“Kristallnacht.
” This was a major step along 
the path to the Holocaust.
I decided to see what I could find on 
Kristallnacht in the William Davidson 
Digital Archive of Detroit Jewish History. 
To say the least, the event has never been 
forgotten. Over the years, there have been 
announcements of memorials for and many 
feature articles about Kristallnacht in the JN. 
The first reports in the Detroit Jewish 
Chronicle were contemporary, before 
Kristallnacht was a widely used term. The 
first use of the term that I found in the 
Archive was in Editor Philip Slomovitz’
s 
“Purely Commentary” column in the JN on 
May 13, 1961. 
However, the antisemitic event was 
heavily covered in the Chronicle, beginning 
on Nov. 11, 1938, with a “New Wave of 
Anti-Semitism In Germany and France as 
Result of Shooting of Nazi Official.
” There 
were similar headlines over the next two 
months. For example, on Nov. 18, 1938, 

was “Roosevelt Leads Outraged World in 
Registering Protest Against Persecution of 
Jews in Germany,
” and on Dec. 30, “Breach 
Between U.S. and Germany Widens.
” And, 
so on. 
Unfortunately, all the reports and con-
demnations of Nazi antisemitism did not 
stop Hitler and his evil henchmen from per-
petrating the Holocaust.
Later feature articles in the JN, 
while decidedly somber, were 
more encouraging. They show 
that Detroit Jews have not 
forgotten their history. Indeed, 
many Detroiters had firsthand 
experience. Some of them were 
able to get out of Germany 
soon after Kristallnacht; oth-
ers were survivors of both 
Kristallnacht and the Holocaust. 
On the 50th anniversary of 
Kristallnacht, Andrea Jolles wrote 
“
A Night Burned In History” 
(Nov. 4, 1988 JN). The cover 
article for the Nov. 10, 2000 JN, 
“Broken Glass, Broken Dreams,
” 
is about Marianne Wildstorm’
s 
efforts to help Shoah victims with 
restitution. For the 75th anniversa-
ry of Kristallnacht, Esther Allweiss 
Ingber wrote about survivors shar-
ing memories in “Night of Broken Glass” 
(Nov. 7, 2013 JN).
Many obituaries note those who survived 
Kristallnacht and made their way to Detroit. 
One that caught my eye was for cantor 
Harold Orbach, “Temple Israel’
s Beloved 
Voice,
” in the April 24, 2014, issue of the 
JN. It related that he and his brother had 
escaped Nazi Germany after Kristallnacht. 
Kristallnacht will always stand as an 
example of extreme antisemitism and mob 
rule. The memory of that night is kept alive 
in the William Davidson Archive. 

Want to learn more? Go to the 
DJN Foundation archives, available for free at 
www.djnfoundation.org.

Mike Smith
Alene and 
Graham Landau 
Archivist Chair

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