“Benno and the Night of the Broken Glass,”
by Meg Wiviott, illustrated by Josee Bisaillon.
Kar-Ben Publishers, Minneapolis, 2010, 32 pages, Grades 5 and higher.
Last week in Lincoln, the South Street Synagogue was desecrated with swastikas. It is hard to believe that this kind of hatred is still present in American society. It is particularly hard to believe because we have a history of religious tolerance in the United States. Religious freedom cannot be taken for granted and needs to be defended. The Lincoln Police have been working diligently to apprehend the person committing this bigoted act. We all must try to stop anti-Semitism.
History provides us with a brutal example of the development and consequences of anti-Semitism. Meg Wiviott has written an outstanding picture book about the beginning of the Holocaust in Germany. Though the persecutions began earlier, the gates of hell were unleashed on the Jewish community in Germany Nov. 9 and 10, 1938. In German history this is known as Kristallnacht, or the “Night of the Broken Glass.”
Meg Wiviott lessens the terror of Kristallnacht by creating the main character, a Berlin cat named Benno, and following his journey throughout the days leading up to and including Nov. 9-10, 1938. It is a sobering tale.
Benno lives a pleasant life in Berlin. Being a gregarious cat, he visits all the houses in the neighborhood and is on good terms with everyone. All the ladies in the neighborhood leave food scraps for him or tickle the kitty behind his ears.
Since the neighborhood has both Jews and Christians, Benno eats kosher food and regular German fare. It is a good life. He follows the Jewish and Christian girls to school and contentedly watches them play from the comfort of a tree limb.
But things start to change. People begin to distrust each other. Jews in particular start being punished for no particular reason. The Jewish girl is singled out and not allowed to play with the other girls. A group of soldiers in ugly brown shirts begin patrolling the streets and creating disquiet. Benno’s life is turned upside down. Now the housewives no longer want to give him anything. Families put their heads down and try not to be noticed by the police.
Completely bewildered, Benno goes back to his basement home by a furnace for the night. But it becomes a night of terror and fire. All the Jewish businesses and synagogues in Germany are violently attacked and many are burned to the ground. Most of the police stand by and watch. This night is named Kristallnacht.
The next day Benno walks down the same streets that suddenly aren’t the same. There is broken glass everywhere and the entire city of Berlin is silent. Some people are pleased with the destruction, but others react with a traumatized silence. Benno can’t find many of his Jewish friends and doesn’t understand how Berlin changed so quickly. What has happened?
Though younger children can understand this story, I think it is more appropriate for older children. This is a grim time in history. The author uses Benno the cat to tell the story, making the book accurate but less frightening for children.
The Nazi takeover of Germany was only possible because the Nazi leaders were ruthless, and they constantly lied to the German people. When lying becomes habituated, people start confusing truth and reality. Having been lied to so often by their leaders, many Germans lost the ability to see truth. This in turn led to the German nation turning on itself.
As the recent hateful act of vandalism on the South Street Synagogue demonstrates, we must continue to be vigilant and demand that our leaders speak the truth. The outpouring of support for the Jewish community by Nebraska politicians and the greater Lincoln public demonstrates that people in Nebraska understand and desire truth.
