The Night of Broken Glass

Growing up in Brooklyn, New York in the 1950’s and 1960’s was like growing up in the shadow of the Second World War. To know about the Holocaust is one thing, but to live amongst people who were affected by it; either by a friends family members, who were left behind in Europe and never made it through the war, or the many survivors; or refugees as they were known; who bore the blue inked numerical tattoo affixed to their wrists, was quite another. That tattoo identified them as survivors of the death camps, and these persons were revered, as they had looked death squarely in the eye and lived.

Today is the 75^th anniversary of Kristallnacht, or the “Night of Broken Glass”. This photo shows the shock and fear on the faces of the little boy and his mother, prompting me to wonder if they were Jewish. Most likely they were not; as any sane person of Jewish heritage would have been indoors when this photo was taken after the first night of killing and burning had ended. But shock and fear know no ethnic boundaries, and these 2 people may just be reacting to the world having gone mad; seemingly in an instant; although the storm had been gathering since about 1933. Like Katrina in New Orleans, most people hoped the big storm would never arrive, changing everything.

The toll from the Night of Broken Glass was written up in terms of how many buildings destroyed, how many lives lost and the like. But all of those figures can never do justice to what was really lost in that night of Nazi fueled hatred. The 267 synagogues, stores, and homes destroyed that night at the direction of the Nazis, along with the vandalism of 7,500 Jewish businesses, and the killing of almost 100 Jewish people were just the tangible portion of the damage.

The events of November 9-10, 1938, while police and firemen stood by and watched; or turned a blind eye; signaled the selling of the German soul. And the judgment for that would be severe.

Kristallnacht marked the point of the Third Reich in which vulgar political rhetoric became vulgar acts of criminality. These acts would grow into the largest attempt ever made to annihilate any particular group of people. And that is the point of marking this grim anniversary. In our country today, we have so many hate groups, all engaged in violent and inhuman rhetoric. And that’s how it starts. With a bit of talk, leading people to become jaded in the face of veiled racism and prejudice.

And, what happens later, when it all spirals out of control? You wind up walking down a street scarred by once seemingly innocuous words; windows broken and holding your child’s hand in fear for the loss of everything you have ever known. Especially your own self-respect.

"Hell In the Pacific" by Jim McEnery (2012)

I  used to live in Baltimore, across the street from an ex-Marine who had actually seen the hell that defined the Battle for Guadalcanal in World War Two. He was in his late 60’s at the time, and even visited my son’s 5^th grade class with some captured enemy souvenirs from the battle. His stories were almost unbelievable in their nature; but they were true. I wrote about him last December; it was a little piece about his courtship of his wife, and their eventual marriage after the war. I have never forgotten him; he was one of those guys you never do; being, as he was, a living link to one of the most unforgettable battles in our war against the Japanese, waged across the Pacific Ocean for over 3 and a half years, beginning with the attack by the Japanese on our naval Station at Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii.

So, when I saw this book by Jim McEnery, who is from Brooklyn, New York, at the library last week, I had to pick it up. Mr. McEnery is in his 90’s now, but his memories of what he went through on that island, so many years ago, are still sharp and vivid; as only the recollections of someone who has actually seen what he is writing about can be.

There aren’t too many World War Two Veterans left anymore to provide the firsthand accounts of that war. But, fortunately for us, Jim McEnery, a Marine who enlisted before Pearl Habor, is still alive and kicking, living in Ocala, Florida. Not bad for a guy with only an 8^th grade education. He is one of the last survivors of the Battle for Guadalcanal. And the story he tells of that battle are exactly the same as the ones I heard from Mr. Watts so many years ago.

As a member of Rifle Company K/3/5; or K Company of the 3^rd Battalion of the 5^th Marines; he landed on the island August 7, 1942, a little less than a year after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and only 4 months after our first victory in the pacific at Midway. That battle was a struggle between naval forces from both sides; the Battle for Guadalcanal would be the first real test of resolve on the part of the United States to repel the advancing forces of the Japanese Empire. This would be the first island invasion of the war in which the steel bayonets of our Marines clashed with those of the Japanese Imperial Army .

For the first month the Marines of K/3/5 would hack and hike their way across the island. They were tasked with holding the line at the canal, which was really just a tributary of the larger creek which ran through the island. It was, however, the line in the sand which protected the American Base at Henderson Field from being overrun by the Japanese. The Bottom of Iron Bottom Sound, in which our Navy suffered severe losses, would set the stage for the withdrawal of the Navy’s supply ships, leaving the Marines stranded with little or no supplies.

Mr. McEnery is unstinted in his praise for his fellow Marines, who came from all parts of the country, some the sons of immigrants. Cultural differences and customs were cast aside in the heat of battle. All Marines were Americans, fighting to stave off Japanese domination of the Pacific. He is also equally unstinted in his criticism of General “Dugout” MacArthur, who commanded his troops from a safe haven in Australia, emerging only a few times for photo ops in safe areas which had been won by the men who did the real fighting. MacArthur was not one of those. His opinion was that “the Marines got all the glory of the last war, and they’re not getting any from this one.” This attitude which was the main reason that the Marines are not listed on the Presidential Citation given to the Army and Navy for the battle fought mainly by the Marines, and that omission still stings the author today, a full seven decades later.

Mr. McEnery is also very critical of President Roosevelt’s policy of saving the European theater first, sending all the latest supplies and weapons to England, rather than the Pacific. In Roosevelt’s defense it must be realized that Germany was working, with Russia, to develop the world’s first rockets, the V-2, and also the atomic bomb. Had they been successful in those endeavors; and they were perilously close to those goals; both the war in the Pacific, as well as the war in Europe would have been lost.

Surprisingly, Mr. McEnery lets the Navy off rather lightly for their desertion, citing; correctly; that they had no air cover from the Army Air Corps. This lack of air cover left our own ships vulnerable to attack by air from the Japanese. When those ships were forced to leave the area, they left the Marines without the materials they needed to win the battle, and the war itself.

This is a wonderfully candid book by a kid from Brooklyn who was right on the scene of one of the worst island invasions of the war. The Battle for Guadalcanal set the tone for the island hopping which lay ahead as the marines made landing after landing on the route to Japan. And all along that route, it was guys like Mr. McEnery, and his comrades, that paved the way to victory in the Pacific.

"New York at War" by Steven H. Jaffe (2012)

With the exception of the American Revolution, and later the Civil War Draft Riots, New York City has managed to escape the ravages of war. Yet, she has played a major part in every war since Henry Hudson first sailed up the Narrows and into the Hudson River in 1609. Author Steven Jaffe has done an admirable job of chronicling the history of war in the New York during the 4 centuries since then.

Beginning with Henry Hudson sending 5 men to explore the northern reaches of the lower Bay, during which sailor John Colman was killed by an arrow from one of the local Indian tribes, the book takes on the Indian Wars, before delving into the American Revolution. Washington’s retreat from Brooklyn, across Manhattan, is covered very well, as are the “hulks” in Wallabout Bay, the site of today’s Brooklyn Navy Yard. The “hulks” were the British prison ships, aboard which thousands perished from want of food, water, clothing and sheer cruelty on the part of the British.
 
The War of 1812 brought panic to the city, as it prepared for an invasion which never came. The forts which were built during this period made any thought of invading New York from the sea impossible 50 years later when the nation was torn by Civil War.

The Civil War seems almost lacking in the memories of New Yorkers, mainly because no battle was ever fought that far North. But the city teemed with danger during this period as Confederate sympathizers from Canada plotted to burn the city to the ground, destroying the manufacturing, and banking facilities, which enabled the North to cripple the South. That plot was unsuccessful, doing nowhere near the damage caused by the Draft Riots of 1863. Those riots were largely caused by the friction between freed African-Americans, and the newly arrived Irish, as they struggled for jobs. There was also an economic reason behind the riots. Poor white Irish citizens could not afford to pay a substitute to do their fighting, meaning that an unduly large number of the soldiers conscripted were Irish. These riots diverted thousands of troops from Gettysburg, and had the potential of causing the Union to lose the war.

The Spanish-American War was very much a "New York" war. Although there was no violence; or even riots; caused by the war, the war itself was largely the creation of New York newspapers and “yellow journalism.”

The First World War was a bit more complicated for the city. The warring powers were divided into 2 camps; the Allied Powers of England, France, Italy and Russia; and the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire. With the city composed of so many different nationalities, loyalties ran the gamut. The impact of the outbreak of war in Europe was so great, that the stock market was closed for 4 months in fear of a financial panic.

The Irish did not support Britain, hoping that a German victory would give Ireland its freedom. The Jewish population was divided politically. They were hard pressed to back the Allies, who included Russia; and the Czar who caused them to flee their native land; while at the same time many saw the war as the best chance to defeat the Ottoman Empire, thus establishing a Zionist Holy land in Palestine.

Militarily, New York was technically invaded by the Germans, who used early submarines to mine the mouth of the harbor off Coney Island and Sandy Hook, New Jersey. They were also able to cut the underwater cable connecting New York to Nova Scotia, and thus to Europe. 15 ships were sunk by the German submarines within miles of the beaches at Atlantic City and Coney Island. These actions left New York in a state of panic. Milkmen of German descent were not allowed to work their routes along the coast, lest they use the opportunity to signal German ships and submarines waiting off shore.

Even before the United Staes entered the war, the war came to New York. At 2 AM on July 30, 1916, a huge explosion took place when German saboteurs blew up a munitions depot. The explosion was felt, and heard, as far away as Maryland.

By 1920 class warfare invaded Wall Street, largely the result of the inequities between the working class socialists and their capitalist counterparts. The bomb was set off in a wagon full of dynamite and detonated at lunch hour.

World War Two bought back the German U-Boats, which sank ships 10 miles off Brighton Beach. And, with the advent of long range bombing, the city was constantly in a state of blackout. This part of the book rang so true, as my mother had told me all the stories from the war years.

The Harlem riots of 1964; and the later Black Panther movement; when coupled with the Vietnam War protests, had the city  virtually under siege for another decade. Policemen were assassinated in the streets, and plans were made to blow up everything from the Police Station in Lower Manhattan, to all of the major department stores. The goal was to “bring Saigon home”, so that the American people would understand the atrocities of war.

Crime soared throughout the 1970’s and 80’s, fueled largely by the drug trade. But, the 1990’s saw a new kind of threat taking place, just as the city seemed to be revitalizing.  Terrorism began to rear its head with the first attempt to topple the World Trade Center. By 2001, that goal had been accomplished.

Steven Jaffe has done a superb job of laying bare the myth that New York City has always been spared the ravages of war. On the contrary, although bombs did not fall on New York, for every conflict in which she has participated, the city has paid a price. And, remarkably, the city has survived,  and is currently in a state of renaissance, with new buildings going up, while crime and violence are going down.  An engaging read by a veteran  author, this is a book which will educate even the most native of New Yorkers.  For more on Mr. Jaffe, and some of his other work, see his comments posted below.

"Peace On Earth" (1939)

Okay, getting back, as promised, to some seasonal cartoons, this one was released around the time that Germany invaded Poland, which marked the beginning of World War Two. The memory of the First World War was still fresh in everyone's minds in 1939, and this cartoon carried a very clear message about the ravages of war and the associated consequences. Beautiful animation, and clear, crisp sound quality make this cartoon a real pleasure to watch. From it's opening number, "Peace On Earth", this is a perfect cartoon for the season. Grab the grandkids for this one!