By Sam Kricsfeld
Contributing Writer
Historians believe that the events of Kristallnacht represented one of the most important turning points in the anti-Semitic policies of the German Nazi Party. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, anti-Jewish policy after the pogrom was concentrated more and more concretely into the hands of the SS (elite military unit of the Nazi Party). Additionally, the passivity with which most German civilians responded to the violence signaled to the Nazi regime that the German public was prepared for more radical measures.
The importance of this event in Holocaust history is noted every year in the Kansas City Jewish community with a commemorative event presented by the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education. This year’s event, in partnership with Congregation Kol Ami, will take place on the actual anniversary of Kristallnacht, Monday, Nov. 9, over Zoom. The presentation is “Kristallnacht on Film: From Reportage to Reenactments, 1938-1988” and will feature historian Dr. Lawrence Baron.
MCHE Director of Education and Historian Dr. Shelley Cline said it’s important to commemorate Kristallnacht because it was a turning point for Jews in Germany.
“After Kristallnacht it became clear that a normal life was no longer possible,” Cline said.
She explained that often when we commemorate the Holocaust today, we do so with a specific focus on events and deaths that came later, after a “final solution” was in place.
“Commemorating Kristallnacht recognizes this early turning point when persecution shifted from legal and symbolic assaults to physical attacks on Jewish property and people. It reminds us, too, that even within a modern society, citizens can be targeted by state-sponsored violence,” Cline added.
This year marks the 82nd anniversary of Kristallnacht — the Night of Broken Glass. Occurring the night of Nov. 9, 1938, Nazi soldiers and Hitler Youth looted businesses, burned synagogues and shattered an estimated 7,500 Jewish-owned store windows. German officials claimed that Kristallnacht occurred as a public retaliation for the assassination of a German embassy official. Jews were physically attacked and publicly humiliated, and up to 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and transferred to concentration camps.
Baron is a professor emeritus and was the Nasatir Chair in Modern Jewish History at San Diego State University from 1988 until 2012 as well as the director of the university’s Jewish Studies Program. He grew up in Skokie, Illinois, and received his doctorate in modern European cultural and intellectual history from the University of Wisconsin. After watching the NBC miniseries “Holocaust,” he began looking at how movies depict history — especially the Holocaust — and how that shapes public opinion.
“I was interested in how ideas affect history and how history affects ideas,” Baron said.
Baron became interested in how Kristallnacht was represented in film between 1938 and 1988. During those 50 years after the event, it was believed that no original film of the pogrom existed. However, he noted, home footage was eventually found in 1988.
In his presentation, Baron will discuss how Kristallnacht was portrayed in films such as Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” and an anti-Nazi French propaganda film from 1940. He said the French film, “Mein Kampf: My Crimes,” had such convincing Kristallnacht reenactments (combined with newsreel and stock footage) that parts of it ended up in wartime and post-war documentaries.
“You have this period where, between 1938 and 1939, there’s an interest in trying to make a movie about (Kristallnacht),” Baron said. “What happens is, you get groups that start making anti-Nazi documentaries — Jewish groups, and then left-wing groups. They have to create images. They have to reenact things.”
Due to the lack of actual footage, American films made shortly after Kristallnacht mostly showed still images or footage of prominent figures condemning the violence. According to Cline, Kristallnacht received more sustained coverage in the American media than anything else in the 12-year period of the Nazi regime.
“Americans really were shocked by what happened in Germany; it made international news, it was in the American press headlines and it stayed there for quite a while — even though there weren’t a lot of visual representations to go with it,” Cline said.
An early American newsreel about Kristallnacht from November of 1938 features footage of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, former President Herbert Hoover and presidential candidates condemning the Germans for persecuting Jews.
Much of Baron’s knowledge about film representations of Kristallnacht comes from research he did for his 2005 book “Projecting the Holocaust into the Present: The Changing Focus of Contemporary Holocaust Cinema” and his 2011 book “The Modern Jewish Experience in World Cinema.” He watched many documentaries in order to compile his presentation and his academic paper.
“I’ll see these images (the filmmakers) use, and I have to trace them back and find the source,” Baron said
Baron has traced back bits of documentaries to photographs, staged reenactments and footage of boycotts, book burnings and other similar events.
The Zoom presentation will begin with a short introduction and words about the significance of Kristallnacht. Baron will then give his presentation before taking questions from the virtual audience.
Presenting a program on Zoom brings both challenges and benefits, according to Cline and Baron.
“In some ways, it’s nice because (MCHE) can get speakers that we might not have been able to because of time conflicts,” Cline said. “It just opens us up for more possibilities.”
Baron said that for a presentation that is heavy with film clips, Zoom is not the best medium. He said that most of the clips will be subtitled and shown via shared screen and audio.
“For (MCHE), it’s important to recognize Kristallnacht … even if we can’t be together, in person,” Cline said.
Baron’s presentation is supported by MCHE’s Jack Mandelbaum Holocaust Education Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City.
The event, which is free, will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 9, on Zoom. Registration is required and can be done by going to www.mchekc.org/kristallnacht/.