The Croatian Presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) commemorated the 85th anniversary of the November Pogrom with the launch of our newest IWalk: the Holocaust in Zagreb and a tour of places of Jewish life and suffering during the Holocaust.
On November 9 and 10, 1938, massive pogroms were perpetrated against the Jews of Nazi Germany, Austria and the Nazi-occupied Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. In the ensuing violence, 267 synagogues were burned and destroyed, thousands of Jewish businesses were looted, and their windows smashed, while Jewish cemeteries, schools, homes, and hospitals were desecrated. More importantly, it is estimated that the rioters also attacked Jewish people and as a result, more than 90 Jews were murdered, while more than 30,000 German Jewish men were arrested and deported to Nazi concentration camps, primarily Dachau, Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen.
The commemorative event marking the 85th anniversary of the November pogrom and the launch of the IWalk in Croatia: The Holocaust in Zagreb serve as a solemn reminder of the importance of the future of Holocaust remembrance and learning from the past to prevent the recurrence of such horrors. The Croatian IHRA Presidency and USC SHOAH Foundation developed this IWalk, a digital tool that connects the testimonies of Croatian Holocaust survivors and witnesses with landmarks of Jewish life and suffering during the Holocaust.
The November Pogrom proved to be a turning point in the Holocaust, nothing at this scale had previously occurred. Nazism posed a real threat to the very existence of Jewish life. This year, the anniversary of the November Pogrom takes place at a time when Europe and the world witness an alarming increase in antisemitic incidents and attacks. The November pogrom commemoration takes place a month after Hamas´s brutal terrorist attack on Israel in which around 1,400 Jews were killed and which caused the escalation of the conflict in Israel. Today, as we witness the largest pogroms against Jews since the Holocaust, we must learn from history and truly understand the dangers of contemporary antisemitism.
