Germany marks fateful date November 9 with Holocaust remembrance and Berlin Wall anniversary

Remembering the 1938 pogroms

Nationwide events are planned to mark the pogroms of November 9 and 10, 1938. Mobs attacked Jewish people and businesses, killed at least 91 people and set fire to hundreds of synagogues.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is scheduled to attend a ceremony in Weimar, laying a wreath and speaking at the Buchenwald memorial site. In Berlin, the Jewish community plans to read the names of Jewish victims of Nazi persecution throughout the day. The violence is sometimes called “Night of Broken Glass,” a label that has fallen out of favor because it can understate the scale of the horrors.

Ceremonies in Berlin and Munich

Chancellor Friedrich Merz is due at a ceremony marking 20 years since the Ohel Jakob Main Synagogue opened in Munich. Its opening came 68 years after the city’s main synagogue was destroyed during the pogroms. Merz’s Christian Democrats are also set to formally nominate Bavarian parliamentary speaker Ilse Aigner as their presidential candidate.

A date with two histories

November 9 is often described in Germany as a “day of destiny,” associated with both devastating events and moments that shaped the country in other ways. On November 9, 1989, thousands of East Berliners crossed into West Berlin after the Berlin Wall opened. The event ultimately helped bring about German reunification.