A moment for reflection: The 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938
Plus: A selection of some of the best articles for current and new readers
Note to Readers including New Readers
November 9, 2023 is the 85th anniversary of the anti-Jewish pogrom carried out in Germany on Kristallnacht (“the night of the broken glass”), on the night of November 9-10, 1938.1 The pogrom came less than six weeks after the signing of the Munich Pact ceding the Sudetenland to Germany on September 30, 1938.
On Kristallnacht see,
United States Holocaust Museum, “KRISTALLNACHT; On November 9–10, 1938, Nazi leaders unleashed a series of pogroms against the Jewish population in Germany and recently incorporated territories. This event came to be called Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) because of the shattered glass that littered the streets after the vandalism and destruction of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, and homes,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/kristallnacht, Accessed November 9, 2023.
The anniversary of Kristallnacht
The 85 th anniversary of Kristallnacht is a good day to consider the themes addressed in the following selection of some of the best articles published here. Aggression. War crimes. Empathy. The stakes in the Ukraine War.
Following are links to the articles.
The first addresses the civic ignorance of the general population in the U.S., particularly on foreign affairs, the traditional role played by political elites, and the fact that today they no longer effectively play that role. The article is especially relevant today, the day of the Republican primary debate, and helps explain in part how such foreign policy naifs as Vivek Ramaswamy are able to make their way onto the Republican primary debate stage.
The second explains why I care about the Ukraine war, summarizes the stakes in the conflict, and contains autobiographical anecdotes regarding the personal and professional experiences which have shaped my views.
The third article examines the phenomenon of “mental occlusion” which accounts in part for our failure to see the terrifying nature of the stakes in Ukraine, and the very real possibility that Russia might win its war of aggression against that country.
The fourth article contains reflections on Freedom and the high stakes in the Ukraine War.
The fifth and sixth articles consider the subject of empathy, how it develops, and how it is critical to our even caring about what is going on in the world—beyond matters which appear to be in our own immediate self-interest. These articles contain extensive autobiographical material, as I try to understand and explain how my own sense of empathy for victims of war, human rights abuses, and other atrocities developed over the years.
Titles of and links to the articles
To go to the articles, click on the underlined date of publication. In some browsers, you may need to press the <Control> key and click on the date.
1)”REVISED AND UPDATED: The decline of truth and respect for expertise: The foreign policy ignorance of the American electorate and its portents,” Trenchant Observations, August 31, 2023.
Particularly relevant to Republican primary debate on November 8, 2023.
2)”Why I care about the war in Ukraine,” Trenchant Observations, June 26, 2022.
Contains autobiographical material.
3)”Suppressed Thought: Ukraine and the West could lose the war–What a Russian victory would mean,” Trenchant Observations, February 8, 2023;
4)”Lessons from the Ukraine War--On Freedom,” Trenchant Observations, September 20, 2023.
5)”It all boils down to empathy; Why many care abut victims of wars and atrocities,” Trenchant Observations, December 24, 2022.
Contains autobiographical material.
6)”It all boils down to empathy -- Part Two; Why many care abut victims of wars and atrocities,” Trenchant Observations, January 1, 2023.
Contains autobiographical material.
James Rowles is a former Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and professor of international law at other universities.
Personal reflections on Kristallnacht
Adapted from The Trenchant Observer, November 9, 2923
Gerald Gunther, the leading constitutional scholar of his generation, once recounted to me in a conversation in a small group of two or three people at Stanford his experience in his home town in Germany on Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938. He was 11 at the time, and soon thereafter emigrated with his family to the United States.
I had studied 20th century German History at Stanford under Gordon A, Craig, a leading American historian of Germany, and Gunther was aware of my keen interest in Germany. My undergraduate Senior Honors Thesis on Germans’ reexamination of their past during the first postwar years (1945-1949) won the prize for the best Senior Honors Thesis in History at Stanford that year. I think I gave a copy to Gunther. At Stanford Law School the following year, I took Gunther’s Constitutional Law Class. It was some years later, when I was working on a masters degree in law at Stanford, that he recounted his experience in 1938. So I knew someone who was deeply affected by Kristallnacht. There is a personal connection of sorts.
Kristallnacht launched the darkest phase of Nazi antisemitism which led to the Holocaust.
With incidents of antisemitism on the rise in America and elsewhere, we must remember what this virus of hatred has led to over the centuries. We must redouble our efforts to give substance to the vow of “Never again!” by educating each new generation, and by doing everything we can to extirpate this evil virus from all of human consciousness.
See,
1)Martin Gilbert, Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction (2007).
2)United States Holocaust Museum, “KRISTALLNACHT; On November 9–10, 1938, Nazi leaders unleashed a series of pogroms against the Jewish population in Germany and recently incorporated territories. This event came to be called Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) because of the shattered glass that littered the streets after the vandalism and destruction of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, and homes,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/kristallnacht, Accessed November 9, 2023..
3) William L. Schirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich ((1960), pp. 430-435 (50th anniversary edition).