Yesterday, November 9th, was the 77th year  Commemoration of Kristallnacht  - or, Crystal Night, the "Night of  Broken

One of the many synagogues torched that night.

 Glass" -  when the Nazis, and their many followers, smashed the windows and store fronts of Jewish owned  stores, Jewish establishments and synagogues. Torah Scrolls and Jewish  books were burned and destroyed. It was the beginning of a massive pogrom against the Jews of Germany - a massive verbal and physical assault against all German Jews. In reality,  Kristallnacht was the start of the Holocaust.

The night of Kristallnacht, Walter Blumenthal, my father, was taken away from our home and sent to Concentration Camp Buchenwald. He was released 10 days later, only because our family's papers for emigration to the United States were in order. And to think, it was only several years earlier that my father received the Iron Cross for his meritorious service in the German Army of World War One.

Speaking in Hoya, the night of Kristallnacht November 2014.

Every year, the citizens of Hoya, Germany, my original hometown,  commemorate Kristallnacht on the site where our small synagogue once sto od, and which was destroyed on that terrible night of violence. I am so very proud of the citizens of Hoya, for redressing, in their own way, the evil, terror and crimes committed by the Nazi Regime.

Tomorrow, November 11th, is Veterans Day, a day on which we should seriously remember and honor those men and women who have served our country, and who continue to serve our country, to protect our freedom, and our way of life. So, in addition to rushing to the stores for the many special sales

We are so fortunate to be living in our  blessed  United States of America.

 events, let us remember the thousands who have served, and the many valiant heroes who have made the supreme sacrifice, so that our world would be free of tyranny. May their actions not be made in vain.

Seeing pictures of those in the various veterans organizations such as the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the Jewish War Veterans, may have many of us thinking of an older generation. But we must remember that they gave their service, and their lives, in the much earlier years of their lives.

Meeting a Veteran in Cameron, WV last week.

And therefore, I think it appropriate to link the annual Commemoration of Kristallnacht with the annual Observance of Veterans Day. The first, Kristallnacht, in which thugs, hoodlums and outright criminals terrorized an entire people, and the second, Veterans Day, in which heroic, courageous and brave men and women fought, and continue to fight, the evils of the world so as to protect our freedoms and our way of life.

Hugs,

Marion