MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Kristallnacht remembered in Uruguay by the entire political spectrum

Attending the event were President Lacalle Pou, former Presidents Sanguinetti and Lacalle Herrera, and also Uruguay's future President (either Orsi or Delgado), among other personalities

Representatives of Uruguay's Government as well as the opposition got together Monday to commemorate the infamous Night of Broken Glass perpetrated by Nazi Germany on Nov. 9-10, 1938, which was rekindled by last week's pogrom against Israeli football fans in Amsterdam.

Attending the B´nai B´rith event at the New Israelite Congregation [in the Montevideo Neighborhood] of Pocitos were President Luis Lacalle Pou, former Presidents Julio María Sanguinetti and Luis Alberto Lacalle Herrera, in addition to Álvado Delgado and Yamandú Orsi, one of whom will become the country's next head of state after the runoff later this month.

B'Nai B'Rith Uruguay President Jorge Tocar likened last week's events in Amsterdam to other historical persecutions and called it a “hunt for Jews.” He also spoke about the current situation in Israel and warned about the dangers facing Uruguay. He called the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack the “most bloodthirsty and sadistic pogrom” since the Holocaust and underlined the “passivity” of Uruguay's University of the Republic (UdelaR) in the face of “distressing” events such as the one against a student, threatened with a warning of “we are watching you, Zionist,” among othr events.

He also addressed the case of newly-elected Congressman Gustavo Salle Lorier, whom he did not mention by name. “With uneasiness we observe an elected legislator saying that he is not an anti-Semite because he loves the Palestinian Semites.” When combined, all these manifestations create an atmosphere that is “eerily reminiscent of the days before Kristallnacht,” Tocar stressed. “We must not underestimate the gravity of these events,” he added.

Argentine journalist Alfredo Leuco, who sat next to Lacalle Pou and took center stage later, highlighted the fact that former presidents, the current one and his successor, despite stemming from opposing political forces, getting together to highlights the perils of a Kristallnacht encore was unthinkable in his country. “I am moved to see the capacity of coexistence, of tolerance, each one with his own political idea,” Leuco underscored while admitting it was something of which he was not proud.

The Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom, was staged by Adolf Hitler's stormtroops, Hitler Youths, and German civilians nationwide on 9–10 November 1938, allegedly in revenge for the Nov. 9, 1938, assassination in Paris of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by the 17-year-old German-born Polish Jew Herschel Grynszpan living in the French capital. Countless Jewish homes, hospitals and schools were destroyed toogether with 267 synagogues throughout Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland. Moreover, some 30,000 Jewish men were arrested.