It was 44 years ago today

Address to the General Assembly of the United Nations -
President John F. Kennedy
New York - September 20th 1963

www.famousquotes.me.uk/ speeches/ John_F_Kennedy/ 9.htm"

An Earlier 9/11 — Broken Glass & Ashes

(In Australia 9/11 is November 9th).

Remembering 'Kristallnacht' - 9/11/38

An eyewitness account ( www.thelooniverse.com/ books/ kastner.html). There you can see Erich Kästner's description of "Crystal Night, 1938", as well as his attendance at the 1933 burning of his, and 23 other authors' books. It was also mentioned in a post in my main blog in March 2006 (mez-at-the.blogspot.com/ 2006/ 03/ erich-kastner-writer-part-of-his-story.html)

In Summary

(In 1938, incensed by hearing of his family in Germany being forced into "relocation camps" in the November snow under Nazi laws, an adolescent Jew in Paris shot and killed a German diplomat.

Goebbels used this for propaganda about conspiracies against Germany, inciting Germans to "rise in bloody vengeance", culminating on the long winter night of November 9th in organised widespread violence. Non-Jews who protested were beaten. Police and firemen watched people brutalized, buildings smashed, looted and burnt. Morning footpaths were impassable under an icy glittering crust of broken glass and ashes.

Prominent Germans who protested were arrested. Ordinary Germans who protested were beaten up. Lack of public protest encouraged the Nazi government to pass even more repressive laws in the next few months.

Can we hope that we've learnt from last century's several examples of disasters wrought by stirring up the darker side we all have - for power, for gain, for dogmatic religion or ideology?

Note the winding-tighter spiral of assassination, having been sparked by rage at the laws & treatment following the Reichstag fire, being used as pretext for Kristallnacht, which sparked the next round of ill-treatment & laws giving more power to The Party, und so weiter. That's why I detest the violent political language particularly around in recent right-wing US commentary, but not exclusive to them.

Two sites of many others about it: www.remember.org/fact.fin.kristal.html and www.us-israel.org/jsource/Holocaust/kristallnacht.html

I particularly like the knife-twist, so typical of current 'economic fundamentalists' of indemnifying the Jewish community to pay for the damages, for example by confiscating their insurance payouts. Relatives were also billed for execution expenses in Nazi Germany (see below). It reminds me of recent British stories of released prisoners whose convictions were quashed being charged for their keep (from March 2007, the Bridgewater Three, Wrongly convicted men must pay 'lodgings' costs for prison, and Warren Blackwell), and of course our own Respected & Beloved Government's way of discouraging rejected refugees in a similar way. Can't promise I'll put the links to those recent Australian stories, but they're there, in solid factual reports.

[From www.thelooniverse.com/ books/ kastner.html]

(To establish the proper atmosphere, this is as good a place as any to show a sample of the bill you got for having your husband killed by the Nazis … Yes, you were supposed to pay for the execution (or else...) It comes to a total of what now must be well over $6000. They even charged you 12 cents for the stamp to send you the bill.

St Valentine's Eve — Hilton Bomb

St Valentine's Eve — Hilton Bomb
There didn't seem to be very much made of the 25th Anniversary of our 'terrorist bomb', back in 2003, and the memorial actually disappeared for quite a while, first during pre-Olympic developments, then major refurbishment of the Sydney Hilton. Luckily, a plaque has re-appeared, moved to a slightly obscure pillar. But I'm hoping that next St Valentine's Eve, the 30th Anniversary, will bring some recognition (and perhaps some related government papers will get released).

Restored memorial plaque to the 3 dead in the Sydney Hilton Bombing, after major refurbishment of hotel.

mez-at-the.blogspot.com/darkroom/2005/08/good-news-on-restoration-of-hilton.html

"To the memory of Alec Carter, Arthur Favell and Paul Burmistriw, two city council garbagemen and a 1st class police constable, who were killed here as a result of a bomb explosion on 13th February, 1978. Forever in our thoughts. Your workmates."

Update February 2008: Some of the coverage of the 30th Anniversary (no photo of the new memorial yet):
ABC News – Sydney Hilton blast to be remembered 30 years on (www.abc.net.au/ news/ stories/ 2008/ 02/ 13/ 2161121.htm)

Sydney remembers Hilton bombings
February 13, 2008 - 4:35PM
news.smh.com.au/ sydney-remembers-hilton-bombings/ 20080213-1s0q.html

A smile, a morning hello and their world exploded
David Humphries with Paul Bibby
February 14, 2008
www.smh.com.au/ articles/ 2008/ 02/ 13/ 1202760398954.html
www.smh.com.au/ news/ national/ a-smile-a-morning-hello-and-their-world-exploded/ 2008/ 02/ 13/ 1202760398954.html

TIME and counselling have eased her pain, but Rosamund Dallow-Smith's campaign for justice is no nearer success than at any time in the 30 years since serendipity spared her life by inches but ruined innocence around her.

"I had just walked past him, smiled at him, and taken just my first step inside the staff entrance when I heard this enormous explosion,"

City of Sydney Re-dedicates Plaque Commemorating Hilton Hotel Blast Victims (Sydney City Council site)
12 February 2008
www.sydneymedia.com.au/ html/ 3513-city-of-sydney-re-dedicates-plaque-commemorating-hilton-hotel-blast-victims.asp

Sydney Hilton Hotel blast commemorated
February 13, 2008 - 7:44AM
news.theage.com.au/ sydney-hilton-hotel-blast-commemorated/ 20080213-1rwb.html

Remember the Hilton bombing
by Premier Morris Iemma
February 13, 2008 12:00am
www.news.com.au/ dailytelegraph/ story/ 0,22049,23202422-5001031,00.html

Articles : Scams and Scoundrels
The Hilton Fiasco
by Ben Hills
12 February 1998
Publication: Sydney Morning Herald
www.benhills.com/ articles/ articles/ SCM38a.html

Current Wikipedia version of Sydney Hilton Bombing

White Rose Day

White Roses (at wampum.wabanaki.net)
February 22nd

It’s White Rose Day. On this day in 1943 Sophie and Hans Scholl and Christoph Probst were guillotined.

White roses and trout
faultline.org/index.php/site/comments/white_roses_and_trout

The Nazis executed Probst and the Scholls for blogging, or at least for getting as close to it as they could gven the technology of the day …

The White Rose: A Lesson in Dissent
www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/rose.html

Most Germans took the traditional position, that once war breaks out, it is the duty of the citizen to support the troops by supporting the government. But Hans and Sophie Scholl believed differently. They believed that it was the duty of a citizen, even in times of war, to stand up against an evil regime, especially when it is sending hundreds of thousands of its citizens to their deaths. …
Freisler and the other accusers could not understand what had happened to these German youths. After all, they all came from nice German families. They all had attended German schools. They had been members of the Hitler Youth. How could they have turned out to be traitors? What had so twisted and warped their minds?

Sophie Scholl shocked everyone in the courtroom when she remarked to Freisler: “Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare to express themselves as we did.” …

No relatives visited Christoph Probst. His wife, who had just had their third child, was in the hospital. Neither she nor any members of his family even knew that he was on trial or that he had been sentenced to death. …

Unfortunately, they were not the last to die. The Gestapo's investigation was relentless. Later tried and executed were Alex Schmorell (age 25), Willi Graf (age 25), and Kurt Huber (age 49). Students at the University of Hamburg were either executed or sent to concentration camps …