November 9th of this year marked the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht – “The Night of Broken Glass”. On this same date in 1938, the German Nazi party and members of the Hitler Youth rampaged throughout Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland while German authorities stood by. Over 7,000 Jewish businesses were damaged or destroyed as were 267 synagogues. Hundreds of Jews were killed and thousands sent to concentration camps. The attacks drew worldwide attention but little concrete action.

These attacks had been preceded by years of increasingly aggressive actions by Nazi Germany and its allies.

Concentration camps for various “undesirables” had been in existence for five years prior to Kristallnacht. Hitler had remilitarized the Rhineland in 1936 in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, and in March of 1938, Germany had annexed Austria. In September of 1938, Czechoslovakia ceded its Sudetenland under diplomatic pressure from the United Kingdom and France and military pressure from Hungary and Poland. Czechoslovakia had been carved up in exchange for peace.

The peace proved to be short-lived. Six months later, Germany had annexed what remained of Czechoslovakia and on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and set off World War II.

In a little more than a week, we will take note of another anniversary – that of the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 by the Empire of Japan. That attack resulted in the sinking of 21 US ships, the destruction of hundreds of aircraft and the death or injury of 3,500 Americans. It served as a wakeup call for the United States, which had been in a three-year hopeful dream that non-intervention would mean safety.

By the time Pearl Harbor was attacked, Italy, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Denmark, Holland, France, Belgium, Norway, Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece and part of the Soviet Union were under Nazi German control or influence. And on the other side of the world, Japan had captured Manchuria and Shanghai and Vichy France had agreed to the stationing of Japanese troops in Indochina.

One cannot help but notice the events of today and note their similarity to those of 1932 – 1941. Iran and its terrorist proxies Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, Vladamir Putin’s invasion of first the Crimea and then Ukraine, and Communist China’s continual designs on Taiwan serve as stark reminders of the past.

I cannot say what could or should be done in response to these ominous acts today. But it must begin with an acknowledgement that the siren calls of non-intervention and appeasement have to be avoided.