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Fireworks light the sky during the as musicians play on stage during the concert for freedom for the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, in Berlin, Germany, November 9, 2024
TRIUMPHALIST celebrations of the fall of the Berlin Wall drowned out commemorations of November 9’s other key anniversary, that of Kristallnacht, in Berlin on Saturday.
In 1938, Nazi thugs smashed Jewish shops and businesses across Germany and Austria, which it had recently annexed, torched synagogues and attacked and murdered Jews.
In a speech focusing on the fall of the wall, Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner said the lesson from the defeat of East Germany was that “without freedom, everything is nothing.” He did refer to Kristallnacht, saying “anti-semitism is still a reality today.”
The Berlin border closure 65 years ago did not happen in isolation, and many Western accounts omit crucial context, explains KEITH BARLOW
NICK WRIGHT returns to Berlin and finds a city in darkness and political turmoil
The cancelled China trip of the German Foreign Minister marks a break with Helmut Schmidt’s China policy and drives Germany further into Washington’s confrontation course, warns SEVIM DAGDELEN