NOVEMBER 10, 2018


NEWS AND VIEWS

THE ISSUES AROUND BREXIT ARE TOO UNFAMILIAR TO ME AND TOO COMPLEX FOR ME TO SAY MUCH ABOUT THESE, BUT THEY ARE CLEARLY IMPORTANT, AND TODAY’S NEWS IS FULL OF THEM, SO I AM SIMPLY PRESENTING WHAT I SEE FOR YOUR EXAMINATION.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-46155403
Minister Jo Johnson quits over Brexit and calls for new vote
9 November 2018

VIDEO -- The Brexit deal "will see us cede control" - Jo Johnson

Jo Johnson has quit as transport minister and called for the public to have a fresh say on Brexit.

The MP, who is Boris Johnson's brother but voted Remain in the referendum, said the deal being negotiated with the EU "will be a terrible mistake".

Arguing Britain was "on the brink of the greatest crisis" since World War Two, he said what was on offer wasn't "anything like what was promised".

Downing Street thanked him for his work but ruled out another referendum.

Jo Johnson voted to remain in the EU in the 2016 referendum while his brother Boris, who quit as foreign secretary in July, was a leading Brexiteer.

Q&A: The Irish border Brexit backstop
Brexit: All you need to know
DUP accuses PM of breaking promises

His brother praised his decision, saying they were "united in dismay" at the PM's handling of the negotiations.

Cabinet ministers have been invited this week to read the UK's draft withdrawal deal with the EU. Theresa May has said the withdrawal deal is 95% done - but there is no agreement yet on how to guarantee no hard border in Northern Ireland.

On Friday the DUP*, whose support Theresa May relies on for votes in the Commons, said they cannot support any deal which included the possibility that Northern Ireland would be treated differently from the rest of the UK.


Mr Johnson, the MP for Orpington in Kent, said the choice being finalised was either:

an agreement which would leave the UK "economically weakened with no say in the EU rules it must follow", or a "no-deal Brexit" which would "inflict untold damage on our nation".

He described this as "a failure of British statecraft unseen since the Suez crisis" but said even a no-deal Brexit "may well be better than the never-ending purgatory" being put forward by the prime minister.

But in a warning to his brother and fellow Brexiteers, he added: "Inflicting such serious economic and political harm on the country will leave an indelible impression of incompetence in the minds of the public."

The "democratic thing to do is to give the public the final say", he argued.

Serious impact?
Image copyrightPA
Image caption
Mr Johnson was elected MP for Orpington in 2010 and was made transport minister in January

Analysis by BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg

For some time, Jo Johnson has struggled with the unfolding reality of Brexit.

A well-respected and liked member of the government, he has decided that what was promised to people during the referendum campaign is now so different to what is on the table that he has quit the government instead.

He's not the first, nor the best-known minister to resign over Brexit. But to leave at this moment, right when Theresa May is trying to stitch together a final deal, could have a serious impact.

Read Laura's full blog

He added: "This would not be about re-running the 2016 referendum, but about asking people whether they want to go ahead with Brexit now that we know the deal that is actually available to us, whether we should leave without any deal at all or whether people on balance would rather stick with the deal we already have inside the European Union.

"Britain stands on the brink of the greatest crisis since the Second World War. My loyalty to the party is undimmed. I have never rebelled on any issue before now.

"But my duty to my constituents and our great nation has forced me to act."

'Authority lost'

In response, a Downing Street spokesman said: "The referendum in 2016 was the biggest democratic exercise in this country's history. We will not under any circumstances have a second referendum.

"The prime minister thanks Jo Johnson for his work in government."

Mr Johnson is the sixth minister in Theresa May's government to resign specifically over Brexit, following David Davis, Boris Johnson, Philip Lee, Steve Baker and Guto Bebb.

For Labour, Shadow Brexit Minister Jenny Chapman said Mrs May had "lost all authority and is incapable of negotiating a Brexit deal within her own party, let alone with the EU".

But asked in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel whether he would stop Brexit if he had the chance, Jeremy Corbyn replied: "We can't stop it, the referendum took place."

Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable, whose party supports calls for a "People's Vote" on the final deal, said: "We warmly welcome Jo Johnson's support of the campaign to give the people the final say on the deal and a chance to exit from Brexit.

"This is a fascinating situation in which Jo and his sister are united in opposing their brother Boris and his Brexit plans."

Brexiteer Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns tweeted that she did not agree with him about another referendum - but his intervention highlighted unease on both sides of the debate, with the PM's efforts to secure a deal.

And pro-Remain Conservative Anna Soubry supported his decision and said it was time for another referendum.


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Anna Soubry MP
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@Anna_Soubry
Huge respect for @JoJohnsonUK . It’s tough resigning from a Ministerial post, he’s done the right thing. Now is the time for people to stand up for what they believe in or we will sleepwalk to a #Brexit disaster. There is another way – it’s a @peoplesvote_uk

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David Davis, who quit as Brexit Secretary over Mrs May's Chequers Brexit plan, tweeted:

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David Davis
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@DavidDavisMP
Sorry to see @JoJohnsonUK resign. He's right that the Government's current proposals are "a travesty of Brexit" and represent a huge democratic deficit - out of Europe but run by Europe. However, a 2nd referendum is not the way forward and is not supported by the public.

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DEMOCRATIC UNIONIST PARTY [DUP]*

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Unionist_Party -- The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. Ian Paisley founded the DUP in 1971, during the Troubles, and led the party for the next 37 years. Now led by Arlene Foster, it is the party with the most seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the fifth-largest party in the House of Commons. Following the 2017 general election, the party has agreed to support a Conservative minority government on a case-by-case basis on matters of mutual concern.[14]

The DUP evolved from the Protestant Unionist Party and has historically strong links to the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, the church Paisley founded. During the Troubles, the DUP opposed attempts to resolve the conflict that would involve sharing power with Irish nationalists or republicans, and rejected attempts to involve the Republic of Ireland in Northern Irish affairs. It campaigned against the Sunningdale Agreement of 1973, the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985, and the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. In the 1980s, the party was involved in setting up the paramilitary movements Third Force and Ulster Resistance.]


ARMISTICE DAY IN THE PAST

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-45641166
World War One: The boozy parties of Armistice Day
By Justin Parkinson
BBC News
8 November 2018

As the UK remembers the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One, commemorations will focus on those who fought and died. But Armistice Day wasn't always so sombre.

At 11:00 on Tuesday 11 November 1919, ex-service personnel, relatives and friends of the dead and millions of others gave thanks for the sacrifices of the Great War.

A year after the conflict had ended, villages, towns and cities held parades, church services and observed two minutes' silence.

That was during the day. The evening of 11 November was different. Thousands of people - most of them young - wanted to have fun.

"Victory balls" - charity fundraising events involving fancy dress, dancing, singing and copious drinking - were held to cater for this need.

Pathé footage of the biggest ball that year, held at London's Royal Albert Hall, shows partygoers in costumes including turbans, doublets and hose, and a stars-and-stripes dress. One imperious-looking woman poses as Britannia.

"These events often had a celebratory air about them, as soldiers wanted to mark the fact that they had lived through the war," says Chris Kempshall, teaching fellow in modern European history at the University of Sussex.

"They celebrated with their comrades and marked the sacrifices of their fellows by living and enjoying their own lives."

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
The 1918 Armistice saw mass celebrations in the UK
The balls continued, raising money for veterans and charities.

Victory Dance, a poem by the writer and academic Alfred Noyes published in 1920, showed disgust at the frivolity on show:

“Shadows of dead men

Stand by the wall,

Watching the fun

Of the Victory Ball.”

But any criticism remained muted until, on 19 October 1925, the Times newspaper published a letter from Richard "Dick" Sheppard, vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields Church, central London.

He called for the annual Albert Hall ball to be cancelled.

"Dancing is frequently the obvious and fitting form of gratefully commemorating a glad event," he wrote, "but a fancy dress ball on a vast scale as a tribute to the Great Deliverance which followed on the unspeakable agony of 1914-1918 seems to me not so much irreligious as indecent."

Sheppard, who had been chaplain to a military hospital in France during the war, argued that balls and similar "thoughtless and ill-conceived" celebrations in hotels and restaurants "should not be encouraged, at least while this generation retains the heartache of a tender and thankful remembrance".

Image copyrightHULTON ARCHIVE
Image caption
Alfred Noyes was an early critic of Armistice balls

The Times was inundated with letters agreeing or denouncing Sheppard as a killjoy.

One contributor, described as "Company Commander", argued that, as the sole survivor of four brothers, "the last thing that they would wish is that they should stand in the way of our enjoying ourselves".

But another contributor, Roger Lawrence, agreed with Sheppard, saying a fancy dress ball was "grotesque" and a "piece of vulgarity".

The popular press, sensing the value of the controversy, took it further. The Daily Mail campaigned for the balls to end for fear of offending the bereaved. It claimed upper-class socialites, some of whom had not served, were enjoying themselves at the expense of the fallen.

However, the Daily Express, engaged in a sales war with its rival, championed the rights of veterans to have a good time and relive their camaraderie, having risked their lives in war.

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York took the same position as the Mail.

Eventually the Albert Hall Victory Ball's organiser, Lord Northampton, gave in to the appeals, postponing it to 12 November. For 11 November, existing ticket holders could attend a service of remembrance - conducted by Sheppard.

Who was Richard "Dick" Sheppard?
PHOTOGRAPH AND BIO OF SHEPPARD

Born in Windsor in 1880, Sheppard volunteered for service in the Second Boer War, but was injured on his way to the train station, leaving him unable to serve and disabled for life
He took part in the BBC's first religious broadcast, in 1924, but had to stop work on the radio in 1926 because of asthma-related problems

In 1927, he announced his conversion to pacifism

After Sheppard died in 1937, 100,000 people filed past his coffin
Source: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

The number of balls dwindled during the late 1920s, when Armistice Day began to take on the more or less entirely sober character it has today.

One former officer stopped taking part in commemorations, describing them as "too much like attending one's own funeral".

"Set against the sombre nature of these moments is the fact that, in reality, 88% of British soldiers survived the First World War," says Dr Kempshall, "and they wanted to be able to undertake their own commemorations and activities in the light of that fact."

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
VE Day is remembered for its party atmosphere

The debate during the 1920s must be seen in the context of society at the time, argues Elisabeth Shipton, author of Female Tommies: The Frontline Women of the First World War.

"With a rise in pacifism and growing austerity, parties with alcohol, dancing and excess were felt to be increasingly inappropriate," she says.

"Furthermore, was it a 'victory' given such a large of loss of life?"

Around 750,000 UK military personnel died during World War One. But, while almost 400,000 UK service personnel died during World War Two, commemorations of Victory in Europe (VE) Day have a far jollier tone, dancers and actors re-enacting famous scenes of the street celebrations of 8 May 1945.

What is sometimes forgotten is that UK cities also saw spontaneous parties when the Armistice was announced on 11 November 1918. Thousands massed outside Buckingham Palace, as in 1945.

Yet the differences in commemoration continue.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
"The two world wars set the tone for how we understand and rationalise wars in this country," says Dr Kempshall.

The crimes of the Nazi Reich make it easier to see the opponent as "clearly 'evil'", while much of the popular memory of World War One is of "mud, blood, trenches and incompetent generals", he adds.

World War One "appeared to be less conclusively resolved", meaning it "has a huge impact in how we talk about modern wars like Iraq and Afghanistan which have mixed outcomes and, at times, limited popular support".

Charity-supporting balls, held on or around 11 November, are making a slight comeback in the UK, US and around the Commonwealth, notes Ms Shipton.

But Sheppard's view of Armistice Day, shaped by his time tending to wounded and dying soldiers on the Western Front, continues to dominate.


SHEPPARD WAS A HERO IN HIS TIME, NOT FOR FIGHTING IN THE WAR, BUT FOR ATTEMPTING TO START A PACIFIST MOVEMENT. SEE BELOW.

THIRTEEN PUBLICATIONS BY OR ABOUT SHEPPARD ARE LISTED AT THE END OF THIS WIKI ARTICLE, AT LEAST ONE OF WHICH WAS PICKED UP PHILOSOPHICALLY BY THE “FLOWER CHILDREN” OF THE 1960S AND 70S, IT SEEMS TO ME. –

.... “We say "No" : the plain man's guide to pacificism (1935)”
.... "Introduction" to We Did Not Fight : 1914–18 experiences of war resisters by Julian Bell (1935)”
.... “Peace : A challenge to the Church (1973)”


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Sheppard_(priest)
Dick Sheppard (priest)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dick Sheppard
Dean of Canterbury
HRLSheppard.jpg
Church Canterbury Cathedral
In office 1929–1931

Other posts Vicar, St Martin-in-the-Fields (1914–1926)
Rector of Glasgow University (1937)
Orders
Ordination 1908

Personal details
Born 2 September 1880
Windsor, Berkshire, United Kingdom
Died 31 October 1937 (aged 57)
City of London, UK
Buried Canterbury Cathedral
Nationality British
Denomination Anglican

Residence Paternoster Row (at death)
Parents Edgar Sheppard & Mary née White
Spouse Alison née Lennox (m. 1915)
Children 2 daughters[1]
Alma mater Trinity Hall, Cambridge

Hugh Richard Lawrie "Dick" Sheppard CH (2 September 1880 – 31 October 1937) was an English Anglican priest, Dean of Canterbury and Christian pacifist.[2]

Early life and education

Sheppard was the younger son of Edgar Sheppard, a minor canon at the Royal Chapel of All Saints in Windsor, and Mary White. Born at the Cloisters in Windsor,[1] he was educated at Marlborough College and then (1901–1904) Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He worked with the poor from Oxford House, Bethnal Green and then for a year as secretary to Cosmo Lang, then Bishop of Stepney.

He volunteered to serve in the Second Boer War: however, an injury sustained while en route to the railway station rendered him permanently disabled and unable to serve.[1][3]

Career

He studied for the ministry at Cuddesdon College and was ordained priest in 1908. Returning to work with the poor at Oxford House, in 1910 he suffered the first of what would prove to be recurrent breakdowns due to overwork.

With the onset of war, Sheppard spent some months as chaplain to a military hospital in France, before being sent home with exhaustion. Supported by Lang, he took the fashionable and high-profile living at St Martin-in-the-Fields, turning the church into an accessible social centre for all those in need. He married Alison Lennox, who had nursed him during his breakdowns, in 1915.[1]

From 1924, when Sheppard provided the first service ever broadcast by the BBC, his broadcast sermons gave him national fame. However, another breakdown and acute asthma led to his resignation in 1926. Having become a pacifist, he articulated a vision of a non-institutional church in The Impatience of a Parson (1927). Sheppard was partly responsible for the annual Festival of Remembrance that takes place in the Albert Hall, London on the first Saturday in November before Remembrance Sunday. In November 1925 he wrote to The Times protesting against a proposed Charity Ball on Armistice Day. Following a nationwide response a solemn ceremony In Memory replaced the Ball.[4] Such was its resonance with the public that it became an annual event that continues to this day.

Lang, appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 1928, supported the appointment of Sheppard as Dean of Canterbury in 1929. Although his preaching attracted huge audiences, illness once again forced resignation in 1931.

After resignation

Trying to develop a public political platform for pacifism, with Herbert Gray and Maude Royden, Sheppard proposed in 1931 a Peace Army of unarmed peacemakers to stand between the Chinese and Japanese armies in Shanghai. More successfully, he issued a call for "peace pledges" in 1934. He published We Say 'No' (1935) and formally established the Peace Pledge Union in 1936. In 1937 – the year of his death aged 57 – his wife left him and students elected him Rector of Glasgow University.

Death and legacy

Sheppard died at home in Paternoster Row[1] and his funeral in St Paul's Cathedral drew huge crowds. He is buried in the cloisters at Canterbury Cathedral.[5]

The character of the priest Robert Carbury in Vera Brittain's novel Born 1925 is based on Sheppard.[6]


IT IS SAD THAT, NO MATTER HOW WISE AN UNCONDITIONAL PEACE MOVEMENT MAY BE, IT RARELY, IF EVER, HAS BEEN A SUCCESS. I UNDERSTAND SWITZERLAND IS A PACIFIST NATION, BUT IN WWII IT DID COOPERATE WITH HITLER AT LEAST FINANCIALLY. SEE THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE: http://www.historyisnowmagazine.com/blog/2016/2/14/was-switzerland-neutral-or-a-nazi-ally-in-world-war-two#.W-eKZdVKipo=


PALS AGAIN? THAT PHOTOGRAPH IS A TAD EMBARRASSING, EVEN TO ME, AND I’M A LIBERAL.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46162052
Armistice Day: Trump-Macron smooth over defence spat
NOVEMBER 10, 2018 3 minutes ago

PHOTOGRAPH -- Macron gave Trump a slightly awkward leg pat after defending his idea of a European army

Donald Trump and France's Emmanuel Macron have both said Europe should pay more of its defence costs, a day after the US president lambasted the idea of a European army.

Mr Trump is in Paris ahead of events marking the end of World War One.

He said the US wanted "a strong Europe," but the defence bill "has been largely on the United States."

Mr Macron said he agreed that "we need a much better burden-sharing within Nato" - the US-led alliance.

"When President Trump has to protect one of the states of the United States he doesn't ask France or Germany or another country to finance. That's why I do believe that we need more investments," he said.

Around 70 world leaders are gathering in Paris for events marking the Armistice that ended World War One, which was signed 100 years ago this Sunday.

May pays respects to WW1 fallen in France and Belgium
What does the US contribute to Nato?

The Trump-Macron show of unity came despite earlier tensions, triggered when the French leader said the EU needed a joint army to handle threats from the US, China and Russia.

"We have to protect ourselves with respect to China, Russia and even the United States of America," he told French radio station Europe 1 on Tuesday.

"I want to build a real security dialogue with Russia, which is a country I respect, a European country - but we must have a Europe that can defend itself on its own without relying only on the United States."

Mr Trump responded angrily in a Friday night tweet, writing: "President Macron of France has just suggested that Europe build its own military in order to protect itself from the US, China and Russia. Very insulting, but perhaps Europe should first pay its fair share of NATO, which the US subsidizes greatly!"

Media captionThe ups and downs of Trump and Macron

Mr Macron has already raised defence spending considerably to meet Nato target of 2% of the GDP going to defence.

He is also overseeing the formation of a European rapid reaction force, a nine-nation endeavour much smaller than an actual army, which is backed by Germany and the UK.

What's the plan for Armistice Day?
After an hour of talks, Mr Trump and Mr Macron were set to be joined by their wives Melania and Brigitte for lunch.

On Saturday afternoon, Mr Macron will meet Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel in the town of Compiegne in northern France, where the Allies and Germany signed the Armistice.

Visiting heads of state will then gather for dinner in Paris in the evening.

Donald Trump had been scheduled to visit two American cemeteries over the weekend, but later cancelled his trip to Ainse-Marne American Cemetery and Memorial due to "scheduling and logistical difficulties caused by the weather".

Gen John Kelly, the White House Chief of Staff, will attend on his behalf.

Mr Trump is still expected to attend a sombre commemoration at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a memorial to France's fallen under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

Tweeting early on Saturday morning, he remarked: "Is there anything better to celebrate than the end of a war, in particular that one, which was one of the bloodiest and worst of all time?"

Skip Twitter post by @realDonaldTrump

Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
I am in Paris getting ready to celebrate the end of World War One. Is there anything better to celebrate than the end of a war, in particular that one, which was one of the bloodiest and worst of all time?

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Sunday afternoon will see Mr Macron and Mrs Merkel attend a peace conference - the Paris Peace Forum - with leaders including Mr Putin and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Mr Trump will not be present, however, which his National Security Advisor John Bolton put down to a diary full of "pressing issues".

The Armistice 100 years on
Image copyrightAFP
Long read: The forgotten female soldier on the forgotten frontline

Video: War footage brought alive in colour

Interactive: What would you have done between 1914 and 1918?

Living history: Why 'indecent' Armistice Day parties ended [FOR “THE BOOZY PARTIES OF ARMISTICE DAY,” GO TO https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-45641166]

Will Trump meet Putin?
The status of this proposed meeting has changed repeatedly in recent weeks.

On Wednesday the Kremlin said the pair would hold a "short working lunch" at the Élysée Palace in Paris, but the US contradicted that the same day.

"I don't think we have anything scheduled in Paris and I'm coming back very quickly," the president said. "I don't think we have time set aside for that meeting."

The two men may meet at a lunch for world leaders on Sunday, but it remains to be seen if a more formal discussion will ultimately materialise.


10 NOVEMBER 1938 – WHAT HAPPENS WHEN FANATICISM AND HYSTERIA JOIN TO FORM TOTALLY HEARTLESS INDIFFERENCE OR HATRED? CAN THIS BE STOPPED? ARE THERE A SUFFICIENT NUMBER OF INDIVIDUAL CITIZENS WHO CARE ENOUGH TO DO THAT? WHEN I READ HERE AND IN OTHER PLACES ABOUT KRISTALLNACHT, I SEE HYSTERIA AND TRIBALISM COMBINED WITH WHAT I CAN ONLY CALL A KIND OF STUPIDITY. IT IS HUMANITY AT OUR MOST BASE.

WE CAN’T AFFORD TO BE UNDER THAT KIND OF GOVERNMENT AGAIN, AND ESPECIALLY IN MY OWN COUNTRY OF AMERICA. WE COULD START, THOUGH, WITH A MUCH BETTER PUBLIC EDUCATION SYSTEM THAT SERVES THE MINDS AND HEARTS OF INDIVIDUALS EVEN AS IT “PROCESSES” THE MANY THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN TO BECOME WORKERS AND GOOD VOTERS. THOUGH IN MY LIFETIME, THERE HAVE RARELY BEEN ENOUGH JOBS TO GIVE EVERYBODY ONE.

UNLIKE THOSE IN THE MYTHICAL MID-AMERICAN CITY OF LAKE WOBEGON, MINNESOTA, OUR CHILDREN ARE PROBABLY NOT ALL “ABOVE AVERAGE,” BUT THEY NEED INTELLECTUAL AND EMOTIONAL TRAINING ANYWAY, BECAUSE WE AS A PEOPLE MUST HAVE CIVILIZATION, IF WE ARE TO BE MORE ATTRACTED TO GOOD THINGS THAN TO VIOLENCE AND GREED, SO LET US KEEP MOVING ALONG THAT PATH.

The girl who witnessed Kristallnacht
By Caroline Wyatt
BBC News, Berlin
10 November 2018

Eighty years ago the Nazis' persecution of the Jews suddenly turned violent in a night of mayhem. This and the next day are known as Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass - and there are still some who remember it vividly.

"Our father took me and my little sister in his arms that night, and said: this is the beginning of a very difficult time, and we'll try to live through it."

Ruth Winkelmann is now 90, but looks far younger than her years. Her eyes are a bright hazel as she looks up at the sky above the roof terrace of her old Jewish primary school in the heart of eastern Berlin.

"When I stand here and look up at the clouds, I think that my father is watching over me, and it's a good feeling," she says.

Then, Ruth points across the rooftops, towards the domes of Berlin's New Synagogue, now restored and gleaming in the sunlight, remembering the smoke she saw billowing out when the Nazis set fire to it exactly 80 years ago.

She was just 10 years old on 10 November 1938. The day began normally, but as her father drove her to school, they witnessed troubling scenes.

"On our way in, we saw broken shop windows and shards of glass lying in the streets. And then we saw a shop where someone had painted the word 'Jew', and smeared on a star of David."

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
They drove on, and saw a Jewish man in a black coat.

Some Nazi storm troopers had grabbed him, and were daubing a star of David on to the back of his coat. And then they beat him, too.

"I thought, 'My Dad is with me and nothing bad can happen to me,' but it was a very disturbing sight, and I was shaking."

Ruth had every reason to be afraid.

When she got to school, the head teacher took the girls straight into assembly.

Image copyrightRUTH WINKELMANN
Image caption
Ruth (right) with her younger sister, Eddi

"That's where we heard what had been going on in Berlin during the night - that Jewish shops had been smashed up and people brutally killed. Shop windows had been broken everywhere, and the words 'Jew' or 'Jewish pig' written in many places.

"We were all very frightened. And on that day, for the first time since I'd started attending that school in 1934, there were prayers. It was a Jewish school, but not an Orthodox, religious one."

The little girls tried to peer out of the school windows at what was happening on the street below.

"You couldn't actually see the storm troopers from where we watched, just their flags - and they were shouting and making a terrible racket. They'd barricaded the entrance, and daubed stuff all over the school too - stars of David and 'Jew' and 'Jews out' and things like that."

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
A burning synagogue on Fasanenstrasse, Berlin

The Nazi government had steadily been passing legislation discriminating against Jews, including children like Ruth, who was born to a Jewish father, Hermann Jacks, and a mother, Elly, a Protestant who'd converted to Judaism in order to marry him.

In 1935 the Nuremberg laws had become the legal basis for the expulsion of Jews from public life in Germany. The Nazis codified exactly who was Jewish and to what degree: definitions that for many came to mean the difference between life and death.

On Kristallnacht, the creeping persecution burst into overt and bloody violence.

Find out more
Watch Caroline Wyatt's report for the News at Ten on Friday 9 November

That day, Ruth and the other girls had to escape via the school loft, walking two by two through the attics until they found their way down some stairs and into a back courtyard behind the main street.

"Our teachers told us to go straight home because the storm troopers were still able to see us from where they were standing. We were terribly scared."

When she finally got home, Ruth realised that it was not just the children who were afraid, but her parents and grandparents too.

They had also seen the smoke coming from the New Synagogue after Nazi storm troopers broke in, desecrating the Torah scrolls and setting fire to whatever they could find.

It was one of several hundred Jewish places of worship attacked in Germany that night, as well as Jewish homes, schools, hospitals and more than 7,500 businesses. Close to 100 Jews were killed, and some 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and taken to concentration camps.

Ruth only realised this was happening when she returned to school and discovered that several of the fathers had gone missing - arrested or deported: first the Polish Jews, and then the German Jews.

Image copyrightRUTH WINKELMANN
Image caption
Ruth and her mother, Elly

As I sit with Ruth over a cup of tea at her cosy house near the woods in northern Berlin, she shows me black and white photos of her family and the home she grew up in, on a similarly tree-lined street a little further north.

Thanks to the Nuremberg laws, her father's parents were forced to sell their scrap-metal business, which left her father without a job. Then they were forced to sell their home. And later, her grandparents and Ruth's other Jewish relatives were deported. Fifteen of them died; only one survived. Her paternal grandparents starved to death in the concentration camp at Terezin, also known as Theresienstadt, in what is now the Czech Republic.

The sudden violence of Kristallnacht is seared into Ruth's memory.

"In retrospect, I became a grown up on that day," she tells me. "The pogrom night took away my childhood."

She shows me a water-stained copy of her Nazi-era ID card, stamped with J for Jew.

Image copyrightRUTH WINKELMANN
Image caption
Ruth's family - her mother and younger sister (left), her father, Ruth and an aunt

The complex Nazi race laws had declared children such as Ruth and her younger sister Eddi "first degree mixed-race", because while their father Hermann was Jewish, their mother had been born Protestant. For the Nazis she still counted as "Aryan", despite her conversion, because of her German blood.

But because the two girls were registered as members of the Jewish community, they were deemed to be Jewish, Geltungsjuden. Later they were made to wear a yellow star on their coats and had to add the name "Sara" to their real names.

Image copyrightRUTH WINKELMANN
Image caption
The name "Sara" was added to Ruth's name

In an attempt to save the children, Ruth's parents agreed to divorce. However, this left Ruth's beloved father even more vulnerable. He was deported to Auschwitz in 1943.

Ruth received four postcards from her father, sent from the death camp. She still has them. Now barely legible, they make clear that her father's final act of love to his children was to protect them from the horrors of the camp.

She reads me one of them: "My dear ones, I am well. How are you? Your parcel with bread and cake and tobacco has arrived. Thank you so much, that was very nice. Otherwise, nothing new. Best wishes to your Mum on her birthday too. Love and kisses from your Dad."

Image copyrightRUTH WINKELMANN
Image caption
One of the postcards Ruth's father sent from Auschwitz

Ruth's father was a captive at Monowitz, a sub-camp of Auschwitz where prisoners were forced to work for the chemical industry. He was working on some scaffolding, when someone pushed him off.

Ruth found out that her father was taken away unconscious, in a van equipped with deadly gas, camouflaged as an ambulance.

"Everyone thought he would never have woken up again, but he must have done," she says. "Because I learnt from the Auschwitz archives much later that he wasn't killed until January 1944."

In Berlin, food for Ruth, her mother and her sister became increasingly scarce. At 14, Ruth was called up to do forced labour. All three received a summons from the Gestapo, and only narrowly escaped deportation.

Ruth's mother, Elly, decided it was time to go into hiding. She selected a wooden shed on an allotment in southern Berlin, which belonged to a member of the Nazi party called Leo Lindenberg, who had taken a shine to her.

"We didn't feel safe there in the shed, but it was better than any alternative, because we could live there as non-Jews," remembers Ruth.

"I never wore the yellow star on my coat there, otherwise Leo Lindenberg would have been in huge trouble. We told the neighbours that our flat in Berlin had been destroyed by the bombing. That was common enough, so nobody asked too many questions."

Image copyrightRUTH WINKELMANN
Image caption
Ruth on holiday as a young child

Life in the shed was harsh - there was no water, electricity or heating.

"When the temperature outside fell to minus 10, it was minus 10 inside too. And in the last four months we lived on nothing but red turnips and oatmeal," Ruth remembers.

They had to grind the oatmeal from whole grains, putting them through a coffee grinder three times and then sifting it. It took half an hour to produce three spoonfuls.

Just before the end of the war, Ruth's sister Eddi died of diphtheria. But Ruth and her mother survived.

Later, Elly married Leo Lindenberg, who asked his step-daughter to convert to Christianity, and Ruth complied. But she still wears the star of David around her neck.

"I converted out of gratitude because Leo risked his life for us," Ruth explains.

"But my faith always remained mixed. I cannot say that I'm Jewish, and nor can I say that I'm Protestant. If you think about it, Judaism is the faith that Christianity sprang from, the root of it. I think that if I follow the 10 commandments, I'm not such a bad person. My father definitely wouldn't have condemned it, and his opinion was always the most important to me. My mother would have nothing against it either. More than anything else, she wanted me to live well and be happy."

Ruth says that even in the darkest times, she always kept her faith in God.

Image caption
Ruth at home, wearing the star of David

"That doesn't mean I go to church a lot," she says, "but when I'm out in nature, I have everything I wish for and I thank him for the beautiful time I'm still having today. Not many people live to 90, and in reasonably good health too. I'm very grateful to my God."

However, she no longer wears her star of David in public, having seen a passenger on the underground rip a crescent moon necklace from the neck of a Turkish girl. She puts it on for family occasions, though, and when she is giving a talk - as she frequently does, despite her age.

For Ruth, connecting with the young and telling her story to new generations remains vital.

"The most important thing for me is that they take on board how difficult it is to live in a democracy. Everyone has a different opinion, and picking out the best requires care and attention," she says. "But democracy is the only way to live. Living under a dictatorship is impossible."

Ruth takes me to the house where she grew up. Set into the pavement outside is a small polished brass square, the size of a cobblestone. It's called a Stolperstein - a stumbling stone - and it bears the name of her father and the date he was killed in Auschwitz. She bends down to show me.

"To me this is a way of honouring my father. Because of course we don't have a headstone for him, there's no grave. And whenever I come past here, I pause for a moment - it's like a short visit to him. Whenever I come here, I feel as though my father is still standing there in the courtyard and polishing our bicycles, or all the family's shoes. That's what he liked to do on a Sunday morning."

Ruth has lived her life so remarkably free from bitterness. But is she alarmed by the rise of the far right in Europe, I ask.

"Of course I worry about that," she admits.

"But I'm hopeful that mankind learnt something from the Nazi era. I do worry about the rise of those parties, but I don't think we will ever see a systematic mass extermination like the Holocaust again. "

I meet Ruth again by the New Synagogue, just behind the school where she witnessed the events of Kristallnacht.

By the entrance, beside the armed guards who are now permanently present, is a black plaque with golden lettering.

It reminds passers-by that the synagogue was set alight by the Nazis during the night of 9 November 1938, and largely destroyed in a bomb attack by the Allies in 1943 before being restored.

In capital letters beneath, it urges: "Never forget."

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When Alexander Bodin Saphir's Jewish grandfather was measuring a high-ranking Nazi for a suit in Copenhagen 75 years ago he got an important tip-off - the Jews were about to be rounded up and deported. It has often been described as a "miracle" that most of Denmark's Jews escaped the Holocaust. Now it seems that the country's Nazi rulers deliberately sabotaged their own operation.

Read: The tip-off from a Nazi that saved my grandparents

Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.


THIS IS ONE OF THOSE EXTRAORDINARY STORIES THAT GIVES ME THE FEELING THAT EVEN NAZIS HAVE A LITTLE GOOD IN THEM.

https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-45919900
The tip-off from a Nazi that saved my grandparents
21 October 2018

When Alexander Bodin Saphir's Jewish grandfather was measuring a high-ranking Nazi for a suit in Copenhagen 75 years ago he got an important tip-off - the Jews were about to be rounded up and deported. It has often been described as a "miracle" that most of Denmark's Jews escaped the Holocaust. Now it seems that the country's Nazi rulers deliberately sabotaged their own operation.

It was a cold October night 75 years ago when my grandparents, Fanny and Raphael Bodin, stood on the dock of a harbour on the east coast of Denmark with their 15-month-old daughter, Lis, in their arms.

I imagine they peered into the darkness, nervously awaiting the fisherman who would take them across the water to the safety of neutral Sweden. Until that point the Jews of Denmark - unlike those in other parts of occupied Europe - had been free to go about their business. But now the order had been given to transport them to Germany "for processing".

So my grandparents and aunt fled. As they boarded the fishing boat they handed the fisherman a substantial sum of money for the hour-long boat trip across the Oresund - the narrow stretch of water between Denmark and Sweden. Then it started to rain and my aunt began to cry. The fisherman, fearing the Germans would hear her cries, ordered my grandparents either to leave their child on the dock or get off the boat. They chose the latter and watched as the boat cast off for Sweden with their money and perhaps their last chance of escape.

Fortunately, it wasn't their last chance. They succeeded in making the crossing the very next night - after giving their daughter a sleeping pill to ensure she remained silent - and lived out the rest of the war in Sweden.

Their story mirrors that of the vast majority of Danish Jews. According to Sofie Lene Bak, associate professor in history at Copenhagen University, 7,056 of them escaped to Sweden, with 472 captured and deported to Theresienstadt.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption

A fishing boat involved in the rescue

This became known as the "Miracle Rescue" but many Danish historians now believe it was less miraculous than it seems. And my grandparents' experience provides evidence for this theory.

My grandfather - usually known by his nickname, Folle - always claimed that the reason they managed to escape early in that month of miracles was because of a high-ranking German officer who came to his brother-in-law's tailor shop, N Golmanns, on Istedgade in the seedy red light district of Copenhagen.

After the war my grandfather would open his own shop, R Bodin on St Kongensgade, one of the most fashionable streets in Copenhagen, but in 1943 he was still learning his craft. Together with his brother-in-law, Nathan, they would take measurements of new customers and note them down with other relevant information on A5 cards. These cards were stored in a bureau in the shop. I suspect my grandfather's hands shook as he took the measurements and fitted the suit of this particular German officer, who must have been pleased with the finished article as he then offered my grandfather and brother-in-law a warning: "Get out, while you still can. There's a round-up coming."

Image caption
Raphael Bodin measuring a client

My grandfather never named the high-ranking German officer, but years later Nathan made a startling declaration to my cousin, Margit. The source of the leak that saved my Danish family was none other than Dr Karl Rudolph Werner Best - the very man who, as Germany's plenipotentiary in Denmark (and, moreover, deputy head of the SS) was in charge of ensuring that Denmark's Jews were sent to their death.

So why would such a man - a member of Hitler's inner circle, known as the Butcher of Paris for his relentless pursuit of France's Jews a year before - be fraternising with Jewish tailors in the red light district of Copenhagen, much less warning them to escape? It's hard to believe.

When Margit heard the story, she immediately went to the bureau which still then held pride of place in the family tailor shop. She searched for the measurement cards from 1940-1943 and rifled through to the letter B. Her heart stopped as she pulled out the card of Dr Karl Rudolph Werner Best.

The measurement cards have since been lost, but the story has always fascinated me. A few years ago I started to turn it into a play, and learned then how historians have been rewriting the narrative of the miracle rescue.

Dr Werner Best was a doctor of law and had an uncanny ability to bend the law in his favour. After the war he not only convinced the Danish courts to commute his death sentence to a prison sentence, but years later - when he was accused of signing the death warrants of 8,000 Poles - he managed to convince the judge that he was too sick to stand trial. The case collapsed and he lived for a further 17 years as a free man before dying of natural causes.

A key priority for Best, as the Third Reich's plenipotentiary in Denmark, was to maintain the flow of agricultural goods from Denmark to Germany. Not for nothing was Denmark known as "Germany's pantry" and as the "whipped cream front" - by some estimates it supplied up to 15% of Germany's needs.

To ensure this continued, political stability was essential. But in the summer of 1943 the Danish Resistance had become emboldened, and the Danish government had resigned in protest at a new policy requiring convicted saboteurs to be sentenced to death.

Hitler's order to make Denmark "free of Jews" - Judenrein - therefore came at a bad time for Best.

"The summer of 1943 had been a blaze of sabotage, strikes and physical confrontations between Danes and Germans," says Sofie Lene Bak. "Best feared for an uprising and general strikes if the Jews were targeted."

So it seems Best set about organising the round-up of the Jews - while also simultaneously sabotaging it.

When the extent of the failure of the round-up became apparent, Hitler telegrammed Best ordering him to explain himself. He responded that he had done as he had been ordered - he had made Denmark Judenrein.

Credit for saving Denmark's Jews has often been handed to Georg F Duckwitz, a German naval attaché and Best's right-hand man, who leaked the date of the round-up to Hans Hedtoft of the Danish Social Democrat Party. Hedtoft in turn passed the information to the acting chief rabbi, Marcus Melchior, who told his congregation the next morning - the day before Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year - that there would be no service that day. Instead everybody was to go home, sort out their affairs and find any means of escape.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
Georg Duckwitz (left) and Werner Best

After the war Duckwitz became West Germany's Ambassador to Denmark (1955-58) and was declared "Righteous Amongst Nations" by Israel's Holocaust Memorial Center, Yad Vashem. But it's Werner Best who ultimately bears responsibility for the round-up's spectacular failure.

Soldiers charged with rounding up the Jews were ordered to knock on the doors and ring the door bells of Jewish homes, but under no circumstances were they to break them down or smash windows. At least one family simply slept through it all.

And when it became apparent that the primary escape route was across the Oresund, all German patrol boats on the water were ordered into harbour. They remained there for three weeks, when the bulk of the escapees were crossing to Sweden. The official explanation was that the boats needed a paint job. All of them - at the same time.

"The restraint of the Germans in Denmark is unique to the rest of occupied Europe," says Sofie Lene Bak. "Not only in terms of method on the night of the raid but in terms of the limited resources used to hunt for Jews after the raid."

None of this contradicts stories of the bravery of the Danish people, the Resistance or those who were fleeing. In 1943, Denmark's Jews and anyone helping them had a justified fear of execution. After all that's what happened in the rest of Europe, why would Denmark be any different?

My grandparents and aunt spent the rest of the war in Sweden, only returning home after it was over, in June 1945. Like many others, they were welcomed home with freshly cut flowers on their tables, placed there by their Danish neighbours.

Image caption
Raphael and Fanny at the beach
A Bodin Saphir's play, Rosenbaum's Rescue, will be premiered at Park Theatre, Finsbury Park, in January 2019

You may also be interested in:
Margaret Nutley remembers her first meeting with a group of unfamiliar boys on the Ascot racecourse. It was autumn 1945, and they were playing football, wearing striped jackets from a concentration camp. Who were they and why were they there?

READ: The 'Belsen boys' who moved to Ascot

Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.


A SOLEMN MEMORIAL

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-46154847?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/c34vxewp0ykt/the-holocaust&link_location=live-reporting-story
Kristallnacht: Lights left on to mark 80th anniversary
By Chayya Syal
UGC Hub
9 November 2018

PHOTOGRAPH -- Thomas, from Sweden, is leaving a light on for love and respect in remembrance to all the victims and their families THOMAS LUNDMARK

Synagogues and homes across the world will "leave a light on" from Friday to Saturday night to mark the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht.

Kristallnacht is one of the major turning points in European Jewish history.

Between 9 and 10 November 1938, more than 1,400 synagogues and prayer rooms, thousands of Jewish-owned homes, hospitals, shops and cemeteries were damaged or destroyed across Nazi Germany and Austria.

At least 91 Jewish people were killed and an estimated 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps at Dachau, Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen.

This year the anniversary falls on the Sabbath, a Jewish holy day on which practising Jews observe a day of rest. This involves customs and laws which include not using electricity.

Skip Twitter post by @SCynic1

Simon Myerson QC
@SCynic1
Replying to @SCynic1
is #LeaveTheLightsOn Shabbat. Jews usually have a timeswitch so the lights go on & off automatically, & thus we don’t break Shabbat by using the switch on the day itself. This week we will leave the lights on when we’re out. We’re asserting the fact that we don’t have to hide.

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But to commemorate Kristallnacht, also known as Night of the Broken Glass, Jewish people are being encouraged to keep a light burning all night.

Eli Ballon is the Administrator and Beadle of the New West End Synagogue (NWES) in London.

"At the NWES, we will be leaving the Friday evening prayer-room lights and memorial tree lights on," he explained.

"We are also asking congregants to leave a light on overnight on Friday night in their homes to similarly remember this tragedy.

"May the only shattered glass we hear from this point forwards be the sound of glass breaking underfoot by grooms at their Jewish weddings."

Image copyrightARI GOTTESMANN
Image caption
Ari Gottesmann, from Tel Aviv in Israel, has also lit candles in memory of Kristallnacht

Thomas Lundmark from Skelleftea in Sweden will be lighting a memorial candle. He said: "I am doing it as a way to give my love and respect in remembrance to all the victims and their families of Kristallnacht."

Lily Smythe is from London and she is leaving a light on to remember those who didn't have a chance to do so in freedom and security.

"I'm doing this in memory of the Jewish lives lost, and in honour of the spirit of strength and courage which ensures that my people will never be defeated."

You may also be interested in:

France warns of steep rise in anti-Semitism
How Germans remember the World Wars
How Berlin remembers Kristallnacht
Image copyrightJOACHIM YAKOV SCHEINEMANN
Image caption
Joachim, from Cologne in Germany, shared a photo of his memorial candle for Kristallnacht

Dr Phyllis Chesler is an author and academic from New York. She explained why she would be leaving a light on:

"Jews are commanded to answer evil with good, bring light and enlightenment where there is darkness and shine a light on evil-doing and to seek justice."

Joachim Yakov Scheinemann is from Cologne in Germany and is also lighting a memorial candle. But in Germany, the official term for the night is "Pogromnacht" or "Reichspogromnacht".

Skip Twitter post by @MimiWalburga

MimiWalburga
@MimiWalburga
Since almost all of the Tweets containing #Kristallnacht are English, I would like to point out that this term is not used in Germany anymore. It was coined as a propaganda term ("crystal night") by the nazis themselves. The term (Reichs-Pogromnacht) is considered to be better.

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"Kristallnacht is a belittlement of what happened," he explained.

"It is also referred to as 'Reichspogromnacht' to mark the nationwide pogroms and loss of life."

For many, the events of Kristallnacht are regarded as being the first step in the run-up to the horrors of the Holocaust.

Skip Twitter post by @MarkRegev

Mark Regev
✔
@MarkRegev
Deeply moved to join survivors and so many others at @WAbbey in remembrance of the 80th anniversary of #Kristallnacht. My grandfather was saved that night, having been tipped off by a policeman. Others were not so fortunate. #NeverAgain

Westminster Abbey
✔
@wabbey
Six memorial candles to remember the victims of #Kristallnacht are lit by:

🕯Michael Newman, @TheAJR_
🕯Lilian Levy, survivor
🕯Rolf Penzias, survivor
🕯Canon Anthony Ball, @wabbey
🕯Peter Wittig, @GermanAmbUK
🕯@MarkRegev, Israeli Ambassador

Lilian LevyRolf PenziasPeter WittigMark Regev
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The US Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates that one-point-one million people died at Auschwitz alone, including nearly one million Jews.

The camp is thought to have had the highest number of deaths of all the concentration camps in Europe.

Between 1933 and 1945, six million Jews had been killed under Nazi Germany rule.

Related Topics
The HolocaustJudaism
Kristallnacht anniversary: France warns of steep rise in anti-Semitism
9 November 2018
Video Remembrance Day: How Germans remember the World Wars
9 November 2018
Video How Berlin remembers Kristallnacht
7 November 2013


FORWARD TO THE PAST?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46150677
Kristallnacht anniversary: France warns of steep rise in anti-Semitism
9 November 2018

Photograph -- Earlier this year an 85-year-old woman was brutally murdered in her Paris flat in an anti-Semitic attack GETTY IMAGES

On the 80th anniversary of the Nazi Kristallnacht attack on Germany's Jews, French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe has revealed a 69% increase in anti-Semitic incidents this year.

"We are a very far cry from ridding ourselves of anti-Semitism," he said, calling on France not to remain indifferent to a "relentless" rise.

The 1938 night of broken glass produced an orgy of violence against Jews.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she lacked the words to describe it.

In a speech in Berlin's Rykestrasse synagogue, she said the pogrom night of 9 November led to the Holocaust, and yet anti-Semitism still flourished in public and online.

"We have sadly almost become accustomed to the fact that every synagogue, Jewish school, kindergarten, restaurant and cemetery needs to be either guarded by police or given special protection," she said.

Both the chancellor and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier described Kristallnacht as a "rupture" in German civilisation.

Image copyrightAFP
Image caption
The German chancellor highlighted a recent attack on a Jewish restaurant in the eastern city of Chemnitz

The head of the Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, accused Germany's far-right AfD party of stoking incitement. Every other week a synagogue or mosque was daubed with hate speech, he said.

In Austria, where at least 30 people died on Kristallnacht, President Alexander Van der Bellen said history had to be seen as an example of "where the politics of scapegoating, incitement and exclusion can lead".

Anti-Semitism class urged for migrants in Germany
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Attacks on French Jews

The French prime minister's message came less than a fortnight after the worst attack on Jews in US history, when a gunman murdered 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.

The threat of rising anti-Semitism in US
What we know about the Pittsburgh shooting

Mr Philippe wrote on Facebook that he had just learned that anti-Semitic incidents had gone up by 69% in the first nine months of 2018 alone, despite a fall in the previous two years.

After a record high in 2015, there was a 58% fall the following year and a continued 7% drop in 2017.

France has Europe's biggest Jewish community and Jews have seen a wave of violent attacks, by jihadists as well as in the poorer urban suburbs.

In 2015 a jihadist murdered four people at a kosher supermarket in Paris
In 2017, 65-year-old Sarah Halimi was brutally beaten before being thrown out of her Paris apartment window by a Muslim neighbour
In January 2018 an eight-year-old Jewish boy wearing a kippah (skullcap) was beaten up by teenagers
In March 2018, Mireille Knoll, 85, was repeatedly stabbed and burned in her Paris flat
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
Thousands of Jewish-owned businesses were destroyed in the two-day orgy of violence in November 1938

Anti-Semitism in schools

Mr Philippe detailed plans for a network of investigators and magistrates dedicated to the fight against such "heinous acts" and said a national team would be on permanent standby to intervene in schools in support of any teacher confronted by anti-Semitism.

His government always put action ahead of the kind of fear and silence that had recently been documented by teachers under the hashtag "Pas de Vague" (Don't make waves), he said.

French teachers break silence on 'abuse'
What happened on Kristallnacht
On 9-10 November 1938, a series of co-ordinated attacks were carried out on Jewish and Jewish-owned property and businesses
91 people died and 30,000 more were arrested
1,400 synagogues and Jewish centres were torched and 7,500 Jewish business demolished
Kristallnacht and anti-Semitism in modern Germany


DON’T MAKE WAVES

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45951606
#PasDeVague: French teachers break silence on 'abuse' by students
23 October 2018

Photograph -- Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer addresses the media over the fake gun incident

French teachers have revealed stories of bullying by students after a video showed a teen pointing a fake gun at his teacher in a Paris suburb.

Hundreds on Twitter ironically used #PasDeVague ("Don't Make Waves") to highlight their alleged abuse.

Most said they had received no support after reporting threats, insults, harassment and violence.

The 15-year-old said to be involved in the fake gun incident has been charged with aggravated violence.

The move came after his teacher complained about the incident at the high school in Créteil.

Video of driver slapping boy divides France
French school in row over tracking pupils
'We are kicked, spat on, hit and sworn at'

The boy said it was "a joke" and that he did not know he was being filmed by one of his classmates, who shared the video on Snapchat.

Image Copyright @BFMTV@BFMTV
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'Reality on the ground'

Described in French media as the #MeToo movement of the nation's public education sector, teachers have unleashed a wave of thousands of tweets.

"I was spat on and threatened to be 'beaten up' after school," tweeted a Latin teacher of 10 years. When she pushed for sanctions, the principal agreed to suspend the student for three days but allegedly accused the teacher of being repressive.

Image Copyright @TeamLatinBlanqu@TEAMLATINBLANQU
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Another teacher spoke of a colleague who received death threats signed by an entire class of students. "The support? Nought."

Image Copyright @Marie_Nanterre@MARIE_NANTERRE
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"I would have liked to been supported when a student hit me in a hallway of my school some years ago," tweeted another (in French). The girl was not expelled, and "I was told I shouldn't feel so strongly about it. This is the reality on the ground."

One teacher recalled having lots of enthusiasm and ideas for her first teaching job as a 23 year old. "During the first recess, you're crying in the toilets because you're not ready for... the blows and insults that rain between them and towards me."

Image Copyright @Mamanschtroumph@MAMANSCHTROUMPH
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One person on Twitter made clear that #PasDeVague does not highlight a hatred of students but rather "anger, sometimes despair" at school management for its inability to deal with social problems.

"We live with regular verbal abuse, but we're forced to continue teaching," Jenny Lartaud, a French teacher at an Alsace college, told news agency AFP.

'Brushed under the carpet'

French President Emmanuel Macron also took to Twitter over the weekend to say "threatening a teacher is unacceptable". He said he had asked his government to "take all measures" to ensure people doing this were punished and banned from schools.

"We will restore order," Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer told Le Parisien on Sunday.

Image Copyright @EmmanuelMacron@EMMANUELMACRON
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He expressed his shock at the fake gun incident, and said he had urged principals take disciplinary action whenever necessary.

"For too long, it was considered that [the number of disciplinary actions] reflected the quality of the institution, with the risk of brushing events under the carpet."

One teacher however accused the education minister of lying "shamefully", telling the Huffington Post the politician "did nothing" to stop violence in a Créteil school he was in charge of in 2008.

Jeremy Destenave shared letters allegedly sent to Mr Blanquer at the time, to expose the verbal and physical abuse suffered by teachers on a daily basis and ask for protection.

"For some, these years leave traces and scars," Mr Destenave tweeted. "Others have even stopped being part of the profession. It is for them that I have spoken and I am still angry."

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