Night Angels: A Novel Book Review

When the shit hits the fan, there are two choices. The first is to go with the flow. The second is to do what is right, even when it is not the easiest path to take.

Night Angels: A Novel, by Weina Dai Randel, was published at the beginning of the month. Based on a true story, the book starts in 1938. Dr. Ho Feng-Shan is the Chinese ambassador working and living in Vienna. Joining him are his son and his American bi-racial wife, Grace. She is unaccustomed and unsure of the obligations of her position.

Grace’s perspective changes when she meets and becomes friends with Lola Schnitzler. Lola is Jewish. Her job is to teach Grace how to speak German. What starts off as a business relationship turns into a friendship. The problem is that the official line from her husband’s superior is to remain neutral.

Dr. Ho changes his mind after the one-two punch of a pogrom and Kristallnacht. He is determined to save as many as he can. But with pressure coming from those above him and Nazi leadership, he has a decision to make. He can either stop what he is doing or listen to his conscious.

This book is amazing. Dr. Ho is listed among the Righteous Among the Nations and truly deserves it. He not only saved thousands of lives, but he also opened the door for the descendants of those who he saved to come into existence.

The narrative switches between the three main characters: Grace, Lola, and Dr. Ho. Though it is writing-wise, a difficult task, the author pulls it off flawlessly. As the tension ratchets up, the protagonist’s options become more dangerous. The question is, who will get out alive, and whose lives will be taken?

Do I recommend it? Absolutely.

Night Angels: A Novel is available wherever books are sold.

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Kristallnacht: The Canary in the Coal Mine

Looking back on history, there are moments in which we should have seen what was coming. Instead, we looked away and in doing so, opened the door to death and destruction.

Kristallnacht is one of those moments. The 84th anniversary was this past Wednesday and Thursday.

On November 10, 1938 — exactly 84 years ago — my great-grandfather got a call at 5 a.m.

He was a congregational rabbi in Hamburg, Germany, and he was warned against going to synagogue that morning amid the devastation of Kristallnacht.

But he went anyway.

— Amy Spiro (@AmySpiro) November 10, 2022

It takes something deep and powerful inside of us to go through something like the Holocaust and still thrive. I would love to say that we all have learned from the past. But being that antisemitism is once more rearing its ugly head.

It should have been the veritable canary in the coal mine. I can’t help but wonder how many millions of lives might have been saved had the world not turned its back.

But we will never know how a war might have been prevented and an entire generation lost to hate.

Kristallnacht, 83 Years Later

Today is the anniversary of Kristallnacht. The violence and destruction that occurred on November 9th and 10th, 1938 was only a taste of what was to come for Europe’s Jews. Looking back, it was a warning. If only the rest of the world had bothered to care, much less take notice. But we are only Jews, right?

May the memories of my 6 million co-religionists and the millions of others who were killed for being different forever be a blessing.

The Lost Letter: A Novel Book Review

A stamp can be one of two things. It can be the postage on a letter. Or, it can be something more.

Jillian Cantor‘s 2017 book, The Lost Letter: A Novel, takes place in two different time periods. In 1989, in Los Angeles, Katie is dealing with the one-two punch of her broken marriage and putting her Alzheimer’s stricken father into a nursing home. While going through his things, she discovers a World War II era stamp. Taking it to Benjamin, an appraiser, Katie starts on a journey across time and the continents to discover decades old secrets.

Fifty years earlier, Kristoff is a young orphan in Austria. He is apprenticed to a master stamp engraver and in love with Elena, his teacher’s eldest daughter. The master engraver and his family are Jewish, Kristoff is Christian. When the engraver disappears during Kristallnacht, he joins the resistance and makes a promise that he and Elena will somehow survive.

I loved this book. It was engaging and powerful. It was ultimately the story of love. Not just romantic love between Kristoff and Elena, but the love that a daughter feels for her father. If there was one thing that rang true, it was the image of how emotionally destructive Alzheimer’s disease is. The slow and painful process of watching someone you love being replaced by a shell of their former selves is beyond difficult and requires strength that you may not think you have.

Do I recommend it? Yes.

Thoughts On the Anniversary of Kristallnacht and the Results of the Presidential Election

For generations, Americans have believed that our democracy was set in stone. Our basic rights, the political and cultural cornerstone of our nation was untouchable. Then you know who was elected President four years ago and it looked the American democracy was on shaky ground.

The anniversary of Kristallnacht is tomorrow and Tuesday. It was the unofficial beginning of the Holocaust. It was also a sign that dignity, democracy and humanity no longer existed in Germany.

Thankfully, Americans have shown our democracy and our freedoms are worth fighting for. In electing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, we have perhaps avoided the path that led the to Kristallnacht and the Holocaust. But that does not mean that we can rest on our laurels. There is still much more work to be done before we can be the country that lives out the ideals in our founding documents.

Can Kristallnacht Happen Here?

81 years ago tonight, the semi-comfortable world that European Jews knew came to an end.

Up until Kristallnacht or the Night of the Broken Glass, the uptick in antisemitism that German Jews had experienced was mostly non-violent. November 9-10, 1938 changed everything. Jewish synagogues, homes, and schools were destroyed. Around 100 German Jews were killed and 30,000 German Jewish men were sent to concentration camps.

Given the current political and social climate that we live in in 2019, I feel like I have to ask if it can happen here, in the United States?

The scary answer is yes. The shootings at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh and Chabad of Poway in California occurred less than a year apart. In my hometown of New York City, the number of hate crimes against Jewish residents is rising quickly.

I sometimes take for granted that I live in a country that guarantees me the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I also take for granted that I live in one of the most diverse cities in the world.

I wish I could say that I live in a better world that German and European Jews lived in. But I don’t. Antisemitism is still alive and well. Until such day that antisemitism is dead and buried, a small part of me will be concerned that another Kristallnacht can happen here.

80 Years After Kristallnacht, Nothing Has Changed

Attacks like the massacre in the Tree Of Life Synagogue nearly two weeks ago do not happen in a vacuum. They start with words, lies and stereotypes that lead to destruction and murder.

80 years ago tonight, Jewish businesses, home and Synagogues in Germany were ransacked and destroyed during what would later be known as Kristallnacht. 30,000 Jewish men were forced into concentration camps and 91 men were killed.

The excuse for Kristallnacht and the shooting in Pittsburgh two weeks ago is the same. It is hatred of the other, of someone who is different, that leads to events like The Holocaust. It feels like nothing has changed. We have learned nothing in 80 years. We allow hate and prejudice to fester until it becomes mass murder. We allow our politicians to twist the facts until they become lies.

A wise person once said the following:

‘Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it”

I guess history will continue to repeat itself until we learn from it.

Kristallnacht

Yesterday, November 9th and today, November 10th is the anniversary of Kristallnacht. Translated into “Night Of The Broken Glass” Jewish owned businesses, buildings,homes and synagogues were destroyed.  Innocent Jewish civilians were murdered or arrested and imprisoned in concentration camps.

 

Kristallnacht was the beginning of the Holocaust. By the time World War II ended 7 years later, six million Jews were murdered, along with five million others who were deemed as “subhuman” by the Nazis and their supporters.

Unfortunately, this sentiment is not a new one, especially in America today. We have a President who is silently condoning the views and actions of the far right and the hate groups who in the past, have been forced into the shadows of our culture. If he had his way, immigrants, especially immigrants of color would be deported. Transgender troops who put the lives on the line for this country would be forced out of the military. The Press, as we know it to be, would be destroyed except for a few television channels and publications who mindlessly agree with him.  It is a figurative Reichstag fire that has the potential to destroy our democracy and everything that we as Americans hold dear.

If we don’t learn from the past, we are doomed to repeat it. While Donald Trump is not a mirror of Hitler, there are signs and red flags that cannot be ignored. If we ignore them, we do so at our own peril.

 

Never Forget

This weeks mark two important days.

Today is the 77th anniversary of Kristallnacht, also referred to as The Night Of Broken Glass.  On November 9th and 10th, 1938, Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues were destroyed by the Nazis and their collaborators. It was the beginning of the end for the Jews of Europe.

Tomorrow is Veterans Day. Tomorrow we remember the veterans who are still among us. While their deceased brethren are a stark reminder of the ultimate sacrifice that members of the armed services make, those who are still living deserve the same respect and attention.

Happy Tuesday.

9-10 November 1938. Kristallnacht (Vergessen Wir Nicht).

Never forget. Words easily turn to hate. Hate easily turns to murder.

Attenti al Lupo

November 9-10, 1938.

Let’s not forget the pain and injustice. They do not age.

Never.

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