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#1: Broken Glass Author: KathrynW, Location: London

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 11:33 am
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This is a companion to 'A Brick in the Wall' which can be found here in St Agnes or in the archives.

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November 9th 1938

Some have not taken time to dress properly. Roused from sleep by the noise of the breaking glass, they are wearing odd trousers and jumpers and coats, too anxious to join with their brothers to notice what they pulled on. As one man swings his axe at the window of a jeweller’s shop, I notice that his left and right shoe do not match. With every step that I take, I can feel glass shattering underfoot, the sound lost as a hundred others do the same. Men and women are laughing, their shouts of glee filling the air as they divide up the spoils of the night.

On the other side of the road there is a group of boys; their leader cannot be more than twelve or thirteen. They are throwing stones and rocks and whatever comes to hand at the huddled figure of an old Jew. When they tire of this, they start to kick him. He tries to defend himself but there are too many of the boys. I go over to the leader and shake him by the hand,

‘For Germany,’ he says and aims another kick at the head of the motionless man.

‘For Germany,’ I agree as I feel the old man’s skull shatter beneath the weight of my boot.

‘The Synagogue!’ somebody shouts to all within hearing. Immediately, the word is passed through the crowd and we set off together at a run. The Sturmabteilung are already there, their brown shirts torn and dirtied.

‘Get everything from inside’, a man orders us, ‘everything that will burn.’

We carry out the books, the scrolls, the art work, the furniture. All of the poisonous items which are destroying Germany. They burn well. As the flames start to lick the building itself, we start to cheer.

‘Were you ever so happy as tonight, Wolfram?’ a friend asks, his blue eyes glittering in the light of the fire.

As I look around at the destruction we have caused, I catch sight of a line of Jews being marched away by the police.

I shake my head, ‘Never. Tonight we have done a great thing.’

#2: Author: Frogize, Location: Perth, Western Australia

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 12:06 pm
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It always shocks me when I realize I'm seeing something through the eyes of someone on the 'wrong' side. I think it's because they can't see the horror of what they're doing - they always think they're right!

Glad Thekla had seen the light in the other one!

#3: Author: KathrynW, Location: London

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 12:09 pm
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That's what made it really quite hard to write because the views seem so completely and utterly alien that it's so hard to comprehend them and express them

#4: Author: Sarah_G-G, Location: Sheffield (termtime), ? any other time!

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 12:13 pm
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Thanks for that, as it must have been really hard to write. It made me shiver, because those people were real and did that because they thought they were right. It's strange and scary to imagine.

#5: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 12:38 pm
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It is very hard to understand about Kristallnacht: it's so frightening how people thought they were doing the right thing.

Thanks Kathryn.

#6: Author: brie, Location: Glasgow, aka the land of boredom

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 1:32 pm
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Thanks Kathryn, It is hard to imagine how they could ever have thought they could be doing good like this.

#7: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 1:58 pm
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That was chilling.

Thanks Kathryn.

#8: Author: Elder in Ontario, Location: Ontario, Canada

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 6:32 pm
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Thanks for this one, too, Kathryn - you have captured the chilling attitudes of those who perpetrated the events of Kristallnacht very clearly. I can well believe it was harder to write than the other one, and I can understand why.

#9: Author: linda, Location: Leeds

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 6:49 pm
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Alison H wrote:

It is very hard to understand about Kristallnacht: it's so frightening how people thought they were doing the right thing.

Thanks Kathryn.

My feelings exactly. It is frightening to think that these were ordinary people who had been convinced that the Jews were a threat to them an had no right to live.

Thanks Kathryn

#10: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 7:29 pm
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That must have been extremely difficult and draining to write - well done.

Thanks Kathryn.

#11: Author: Fiona Mc, Location: Bendigo, Australia

Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2007 2:15 am
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That gave me goosebumps. Thanks

#12: Author: Elbee, Location: Surrey

Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2007 11:58 am
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Very chilling. Thanks, Kathryn.

#13: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2007 1:09 pm
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Not just chilling, terrifying.

#14: Author: Rosalin, Location: Swansea

Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2007 8:27 pm
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It certainly is chilling. And terrifying.

Thanks Kathryn.

#15: Author: BethC, Location: Worcester, UK

Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2007 12:41 pm
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Thank you, Kathryn - sometimes it's necessary to be reminded that the people acting this way were just ordinary people. What would we ourselves become in those circumstances?

#16: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 3:25 pm
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Chilling and terrifying. Thank you, Kathryn, that must have been difficult to write. It's very frightening to think of all the bad things that have been done in the world because people thought they were the "right" things to do.

#17: Author: aitchemelle, Location: West Sussex

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:07 pm
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Thank you Kathryn. Studying the Holocaust with my class as part of our WW2 topic, its sometimes all too easy to see "us" as right and "them" as wrong, forgetting that "they" thought what they were doing was the best thing.

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