An official chronicle of the West German town of Moringen which claims that Jews provoked the infamous “Kristallnacht” in 1938, has drawn an angry protest from Heinz Galinski, chairman of the Jewish community of West Berlin to Prime Minister Ernst Albrecht of the federal state of Lower Saxony. Galinski charged that publication of the chronicle was a scandal and an insult to the Jewish victims of Nazism and Jews in general.
The chronicle was written by the town archivist, an honorary position, to mark Moringen’s 1000th anniversary. It states that “The so-called Reichskristallnacht in November 1938, was the outcome of worldwide Jewish provocations.” According to the writer, German businesses in the United States were stoned and damaged at the instigation of Jews and a number of assassination attempts were made on the lives of German representatives abroad. The German people were not willing to tolerate this and “several radical elements of the SS and the SA lost their temper” and reacted with “the madness which was later labelled by some as the Reichskristallnacht.”
It was so labeled because of the shattered glass that littered the streets of German cities after a nightlong rampage in which Nazi gangs smashed the windows of Jewish shops and homes and destroyed other Jewish property.
The chronicle contains another passage with anti-Semitic overtones. It states that there was a Jewish youth named Willi who “enjoyed in Moringen full recognition because he was the only Jew there who worked with his hands.” The town authorities have told reporters that they have no intentions of changing any part of the chronicle.
Galinski warned in his letter to Albrecht that if there is no suitable retraction the chronicle will further encourage neo-Nazi activities and other anti-Semitic manifestations in the federal republic.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
