Several hundred participated in a torchlight walk in Oslo in memory of the crystal night (the night of broken glass) in 1938, which marked a dramatic escalation of the Jewish persecution in Germany.
Prime Minister Erna Solberg was among those who participated in the walk Thursday evening.
There were 200 enrolled, and 800 interested in advance of the event. The torch train started at Youngstorget, and the journey ended at the National Theater, where Solberg held a small speech.
Before the memorial, Solberg said that attention should also be paid to the changes in society that occurred in advance of Crystal Night, when there was an acceptance that Jews were the enemy to society.
“We have to talk about how it began, to understand how it could end as terrible as it did,” said the Prime Minister to TV 2.
It is 79 years since Crystal Night took place between the 9th and 10th of November 1938. When the Nazi German government implemented extensive acts of violence against Jews and Jewish property in Germany and Austria.
The name Crystal Night refers to the amount of glass was broken from the windows of Jewish-owned stores that were broken during the night.
The Nazis used the propaganda work Rikskristallnatten about the incident. In many history books, the name Novemberpogromen is used instead.
© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today
