German president remembers anti-Jewish pogrom 83 years ago

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER
Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has marked the 83rd anniversary of the anti-Jewish pogrom that was labeled “Kristallnacht” — the “Night of Broken Glass” —  when Nazis, among them many ordinary Germans, terrorized Jews throughout Germany and Austria. In a speech on Tuesday, Steinmeier talked about Nov. 9, 1938, when the Nazis killed at least 91 people, vandalized around 7,500 Jewish businesses and burned more than 1,400 synagogues. The president also pointed out that other significant events also happened on Nov. 9: in 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell, and in 1918, when Social Democrat Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed Germany a republic at the end of World War I.