Dr. Jody Perrun: The wages of slander: Kristallnacht, Gaza, and the resurgence of antisemitism

On the night of 9-10 November 1938, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels instigated a nation-wide pogrom targeting German Jews. About 100 were murdered, Jewish properties and businesses were vandalized and looted, and half the country’s synagogues were set on fire while police and firefighters stood aside.[1] In the aftermath of Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass,” thousands of Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps and the Jewish community was made to pay for the clean-up. The muted response to this atrocity encouraged the Nazis to escalate their persecution of the Jews and initiate the Holocaust.

The 86^th anniversary of the event is nearly upon us, but this piece isn’t actually about Kristallnacht. It considers the question of what can happen when a vulnerable minority is slandered and scapegoated, in the past or in the present.

The Nazis prepared the ground for Kristallnacht and the Shoah with a relentless campaign of propaganda that distorted history and current events to suit their antisemitic narrative. They blamed the Jews for all manner of problems, real and imagined: Jews were supposedly responsible for Germany’s loss of the Great War, and for the economic crises of the 1920s and 1930s; they were said to be engaged in a shadowy conspiracy to control the world; and they were inextricably linked with the Bolshevik menace that occupied Adolf Hitler’s fantasies. Later, the Jews were blamed for the Second World War and the destruction that it visited upon Germany. In the Nazi worldview, the continued existence of this inferior race threatened the fatal degeneration of German life and society.

Like the Nazis, Hamas teaches a slanderous narrative about Jews (including variations on the blood libel, for example) and strives for their extermination. Though it was Hamas that attacked Israel a year ago, murdered 1200 people, and kidnapped 250 – many of whom remain prisoners in Gaza – Jews everywhere have been blamed for the suffering resulting from the war that ensued. Pro-Palestinian activists constantly assert that the Palestinians are the victims of a genocide and compare Israelis to Nazis instead of condemning Hamas terrorism, and some openly celebrate October 7th. Media bias is glaring in countless articles and headlines that cite “Gaza health authorities” – Hamas officials – in reporting the human suffering in excruciating detail without substantiating debatable casualty figures or reminding their audiences why the war is being fought in the first place.

In repeating the cry of “genocide,” Palestinian sympathizers have taken a page out of the Nazi propaganda handbook, recognizing that if you assert the lie often enough, people will forget that it isn’t the truth. The genocide claim is, of course, absurd. The Palestinian population has increased rapidly since 1948, including in Gaza – which has grown from 266,000 in 1960 to 1.5 million in 2010 to 2.1 million in 2023, according to the US Census Bureau’s Internation Database.[2] Moreover, those who proclaim a genocide ignore research suggesting a significantly lower civilian-to-combatant casualty ratio in Gaza (estimated at less than 2 to 1) than is the norm in urban warfare (acknowledged in various sources at about 9 to 1). If this is genocide, it’s the most inept genocide ever committed.[3] Using the word in the context of this conflict renders the very concept of genocide meaningless.

Still, Israel is excoriated for continuing a war against an enemy that denies its right to exist, calls for the killing of Jews as its mission statement, and uses its own people as human shields. One can certainly question whether the war in Gaza and Lebanon can ever realize Israel’s war aims, but it is clear that Israel is being held to a different standard by outsiders who judge its response to October 7th.

After the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11, for example, the United States launched invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq in its “War on Terror.” In doing so, the US was joined by numerous NATO allies, including Canada. History has shown the Jews that very few gentiles would stand with them when their very existence was threatened, whether in the Holocaust or during the interminable conflict that followed Israel’s creation in 1948. In seeking to defend themselves from the latest existential threat, Jews (not only Israelis) are called colonizers (though they are indigenous to the region) and child-killers.

Jews have been targets of rising antisemitism in Canada and abroad over the last year. This has been a trend of somewhat longer standing but it has accelerated alarmingly since Hamas triggered the current war. B’nai Brith recorded 5791 antisemitic incidents in Canada in 2023, which is more than double the number in 2022 and the most they’ve ever recorded in over 40 years of publishing their annual audit.[4] These incidents include acts such as shootings, vandalism, and online harassment. As the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs reported in July 2024, “despite representing just one percent of the Canadian population, Jews were the victim in 70 percent of all religion-motivated hate crimes.”[5] The Anti-Defamation League similarly reported 10,000 antisemitic incidents in the USA over the last year, an increase of more than 200% and the most that it has ever recorded.[6]

Just in the last month or so, here in Canada we have seen shots fired at a Jewish school in Toronto, calls to boycott Jewish businesses in Montreal, and antisemitic pro-Palestine rallies in Winnipeg calling for the destruction of the “disease” of Zionism. More discouraging perhaps, considering the source, was a message promoted by the Winnipeg School Division proclaiming that “resistance to colonialism is not terrorism,” which can only be interpreted as excusing if not justifying the barbarity of October 7th. One result of this hateful climate is a growing unease among Jews in Canada, and an understandable sense of insecurity that mandates security fences surrounding community institutions such as schools, synagogues, and museums wherever Jews live.

Many Canadians seem unaware that antisemitism is on the rise, and there are alarming knowledge gaps about the historical events that led us to this point. No doubt, grasping the complexities of Jewish and Middle Eastern history can be daunting. The task is further complicated by a deficit in learning about antisemitism and the Holocaust, particularly among Canadian youth. A survey conducted for the Azrieli Foundation in September 2018 found that, in Canada:

• only about half of Canadians recognize that antisemitism exists in Canada today
• about one in five Millennials and Gen Z respondents were not sure what happened in the Holocaust
• more than half of all adults did not know that 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust
• about half could not name a single concentration camp or ghetto[7]

After 1945, Germans claimed that they hadn’t been aware of the extent of Nazi persecution of the Jews. Such claims ring hollow; historians have demonstrated that the Germans did know, during the war, but with heads in the sand they turned their backs on an obligation to recognize the truth of what they had done. In the process, they served as accomplices to a true genocide.

We have an opportunity to do better, by ensuring that Canadians are aware of the history of Jewish persecution and the ends to which it can lead. Manitoba and other provinces have ordered the inclusion of Holocaust education in school curricula. Accordingly, a group of my colleagues and I have created the Holocaust Memorial Sites Study Tour initiative to help prepare educators to teach this essential subject through a lecture series and tour of relevant historical sites in Europe. This unique professional development program will help educators develop an awareness of how the Holocaust and other mass atrocities have occurred, and enable them to implement Holocaust and human rights education in our schools.  

Both Holocaust history and the narrative surrounding the current conflict in the Middle East underscore how easily misinformation and propaganda can lead to scapegoating. Kristallnacht showed how quickly scapegoating can turn to violence. There is a real need, now, to dispel the shadows of distortion that only serve the cause of those who hate Jews. Through education, we can shine a light to help counter the hatred that has found such fertile ground throughout the West since October 7th.

Jody Perrun is a Canadian historian. He has taught courses on antisemitism and the Holocaust at the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba for the last 15 years, and has led numerous study tours of historical sites in Europe.

The Holocaust Memorial Sites Study Tour initiative needs fundraising help to realize its goal of running an educator’s tour every two years, starting in 2025. Anyone wishing tolearn more, may contact the author or visit our website, https://mbholocaustinitiative.wordpress.com.