TII Statement on November 9

One of the tasks of our Institute is to draw attention to the historical events and context of the phenomenon for which the name Holocaust has been adopted. One of the most tragic events that officially triggered the Nazi rampage and the persecution of the Jewish population of Europe happened exactly 86 years ago, on the night of 9-10 November. The Nazis themselves called it Kristallnacht, after the shattered windows of Jewish shops, homes and synagogues. Post-war history also knows it as the Reich Pogrom.

The world public, and ours as well, sometimes misses the historical context. This tragic event happened less than six weeks after the Munich Agreement was adopted, which broke up Czechoslovakia and annexed the territory of the so-called Sudetenland to the "Reich". Over 50 synagogues were burned down in this relatively small area alone, some of which would be architectural gems today, e.g. in Liberec, Karlovy Vary or Mariánské Lázně.

So much for the historical context. But this event has an incredibly current impact. Two days before this anniversary, Amsterdam experienced a similar atmosphere to that experienced by Jews in the streets of many European cities 86 years ago. The violence that erupted after the Maccabi Tel Aviv football match bears the same hallmarks of a pogrom. Israeli athletes and fans were attacked by an angry mob, not only of Muslims living in Holland. The Middle East conflict has thus quite visibly moved to Europe.

We constantly point out that this form of anti-Semitism, whose irrational justification points to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is totally unacceptable to those of us who hold the legacy of Holocaust survivors sacred. We therefore call for the guilty to be punished as severely as possible immediately, otherwise Europe's tragic history risks repeating itself.

Tomáš Kraus, Director of the Institute