Tuesday, November 9, 2010

International Day against Fascism and Anti-Semitism


Today, 9th of November is the 72nd anniversary of "Kristallnacht", the day when the Nazis began their most serious pogrom against German and Austrian Jews. Synagogues and Jewish shops were attacked and set on fire by SA stormtroopers; 91 Jews were killed, and 30,000 Jewish men were taken to concentration camps, where they were tortured and over 1,000 of them later died. The "Kristallnacht" pogrom is usually seen as the symbolic beginning of the Holocaust.

For that reason, on mainland Europe (it seems to be largely ignored in the UK for some reason), 9th of November has now been designated,
International Day Against Facism and Antisemitism:
Hatred all throughout Europe is becoming a fatal, daily constant. It appears in many faces – right-wing extremism, fascism, extreme nationalism, xenophobia, racism, roma-phobia, islamophobia, antisemitism – but it always brings the same poisonous consequences for communities and society at large. Hate not only leads towards violence, discrimination and exclusion, but it is a dangerous threat to democracy and peace as well.

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