Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

November 9, 2007

On this day in 1938, Germany succumbed to a government-organized outbreak of anti-Jewish violence known to history as Kristallnacht ? the ?Night of Broken Glass.?

The triggering incident was the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris by a young Jewish man whose parents were being mistreated by the Nazis. But that was merely a pretext. The National Socialist government had been carefully preparing to expropriate, incarcerate, and eliminate the nation's Jewish population.

During the rampage, the police worked in tandem with street thugs to destroy homes, stores, and businesses owned by Jews. Synagogues were desecrated and set on fire. Scores of innocent people were murdered. Tens of thousands were summarily arrested and sent to detention camps. The government fined the German Jewish community 1 billion reichmarks for the mob violence the same government had abetted and organized.

Wherever government exercises unaccountable power, and categorizes people by religion or ethnicity, the potential for a Kristallnacht exists.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.