Abstract
To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the November
pogrom, referred to as
Reichskristallnacht
at the time (the Night of Broken
Glass), which had occurred on November 9–10, 1938, the West German
Postal Service issued the stamp featured here. It depicts the burning
synagogue in Baden-Baden and includes a Jewish proverb: “The key to
salvation lies in remembrance.” On November 10, 1988, the Bundestag held
an official memorial service, which ended in an uproar. Many Bundestag
representatives felt that the speech delivered on the occasion by
Bundestag President Phillip Jenninger was trivializing, and they walked
out. Jenninger’s speech was also criticized in the public discourse,
although less for its content than its rhetorical and stylistic
shortcomings, which had led to misinterpretations. Jenninger eventually
resigned from his office as a result of the scandal.