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Chamber and committees

85th Anniversary of Kristallnacht Highlights Increasing Antisemitism

  • Submitted by: Kenneth Gibson, Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party.
  • Date lodged: Thursday, 09 November 2023
  • Motion type: Standard Motion
  • Motion reference: S6M-11207

That the Parliament commemorates the victims of Kristallnacht, also known as the Night of Broken Glass or the November Pogrom, a destructive campaign of violence against Jewish people and their communities, on its 85th anniversary; understands that, throughout the night of 9-10 November 1938, the Nazi Party and its collaborators targeted almost every synagogue and Jewish prayer room in Germany, with over 1,400 burned or badly damaged, 7,500 Jewish businesses across Germany and Austria vandalised, and at least 91 people murdered, with a further 30,000 Jewish men being arrested and taken to concentration camps, where many more died; further understands that this was followed by hundreds of suicides in the Jewish community and mass emigration; recognises the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany’s relaunched campaign, #ItStartedWithWords, highlighting that the Holocaust did not start with camps, ghettos and deportations, but with words of hate; understands that this campaign is important, in light of what it sees as the growing prevalence of Holocaust denial, distortion and hate speech towards Jewish communities and individuals in many countries and online; notes with concern recent reports that more than 1,000 hate incidents have taken place across the UK against British Jews since the Hamas terrorist attacks on 7 October 2023, the highest 28-day total recorded since the Community Security Trust began tracking antisemitic attacks in 1984, and a 537% increase compared to the same period in 2022; recognises the resilience of Holocaust survivors who have taken part in this campaign and continue to highlight the barbaric actions that took place during the Second World War, particularly following what it sees as the unacceptable rise in antisemitism throughout the last month, and continues to remember the six million Jewish people and others targeted due to ethnicity, religion, political beliefs and sexual orientation who were victims of Nazi persecution.


Supported by: Karen Adam, Clare Adamson, Jeremy Balfour, Colin Beattie, Miles Briggs, Alexander Burnett, Donald Cameron, Pam Duncan-Glancy, Annabelle Ewing, Murdo Fraser, Jamie Halcro Johnston, Bill Kidd, John Mason, Stuart McMillan, Audrey Nicoll, Kevin Stewart, Paul Sweeney, Evelyn Tweed, Tess White