Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, has been commemorated in the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam. Mayor Eberhard van der Laan gave a speech and laid a wreath outside the Hollandse Schouwburg, the theatre where Jews were rounded up before being transported to Nazi concentration camps during World War II.
On the night of 9 November 1938, Nazis set fire to 267 synagogues and thousands of Jewish shops in Germany. The term Kristallnacht refers to the breaking of the shop windows.
A Jewish youth organisation warned that polarisation in the Netherlands is increasing as there is less respect for religious expression:
“All people in our country should live together peacefully, respectfully and without discrimination […] there should never be room for anti-Semitism and rascism in the Netherlands and Amsterdam.''
(nc/hs/imm)
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