Some Jewish homes in Berlin were vandalized with the Star of David in the aftermath of the Israel-Hamas War, stoking fears among Jewish communities across the world of a repeat of the antisemitist pogroms and atrocities of Nazi Germany during the Holocaust.
The streets of Berlin appeared to turn back the clock to 1938 after the homes of German Jews were vandalized with the Star of David as the Israel-Hamas War entered its second week.
The Nazis marked Jewish homes and businesses during the Holocaust as part of their cruel and oppressive agenda. These markings weren't just symbols; they were harbingers of fear and isolation. They were a dark reminder that Jewish individuals and families were singled out,… pic.twitter.com/6OAV4TFP11
— Tired Kitten (@psychotic_bat) October 14, 2023
Jewish homes in Germany's capital were allegedly targeted after pictures of homes with graffiti of the Jewish emblem circulated online, with German police reporting at least four cases of such in recent days, German news outlet Bild reported.
Among the homes targeted was that of a young Jewish woman who said she was shocked to return to her apartment on Thursday evening (October 12) after a mezuzah - a Jewish house blessing - to find a star marked on her door. She added the marking on her front door left her "scared."
Jewish home in Berlin marked by vandals…what era are we in? pic.twitter.com/igmdiRrDTb
— Nate McMurray (@Nate_McMurray) October 15, 2023
German Intel Chief Fears for a Palestinian Pogrom
Police said they were now investigating whether the houses targeted so far have a Jewish resident and whether there was a connection to the incidents, which are considered a crime under German law.
The intelligence chief of the German state of Thuringia, Stephan Kramer, told local media that radicalized sympathizers could possibly carry out concrete antisemitic attacks against Jewish and Israeli institutions and people amid Hamas's attack on Israel and the resulting shelling of Gaza.
Kramer added that some Palestinians were "openly and blatantly calling for a kind of Kristallnacht 2.0."
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A 21st Century 'Kristallnacht'?
Kristallnacht, also called the Night of Broken Glass or the November Pogroms, was an event in Nazi Germany in November 1938, when Nazi brownshirts painted the Star of David in white on the doors of Jewish businesses to discourage non-Jewish Germans from going into them.
Some considered the event to be the beginning of the Holocaust.
According to the Daily Mail, incidents of anti-semitism and protests for most of last week have invoked fear for Jewish people across Europe since the war broke out.
A synagogue in Madrid was vandalized, where a graffiti reading "Free Palestine" was written next to a crossed-out Star of David.
There were also cases of antisemitic acts recorded in France, where authorities there have arrested at least 50 people on charges of targeting the largest Jewish community in Europe, including a man of Muslim Chechen descent who killed a schoolteacher in a knife attack which coincided with a string of protests from across the Muslim world this weekend.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged £3 million (3.64 million) to help protect synagogues and Jewish schools, some of which have had to close over safety fears.
The Community Security Trust (CST), a UK-based Jewish community protection group, said it recorded a 324% increase in instances of anti-Semitism in the four days after October 7 compared to the same period last year.
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