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In 2010, when I first visited Germany I purchased a Lonely Planet guide to Germany (2010) and in my snippits of spare time I have been going back to read sections of it.
I recently came acrosss something in it which is ridiculous and offensive regarding Kristallnact. Here’s the quote on p.348:
“Nazi horror escalated on Nov 9 1938 with Kristallnacht. In retaliation for the assassination of a German consular official by a Polish Jew in Paris, synagogues and Jewish cemetaries, properties and businesses across Germany were desecrated or demolished ” [emphasis added].
I have never heard the suggestion that Kristallnacht was was in retaliation for anything. The Lonely Planet guidebook gives an offensive justification for Kristallnacht, as if somehow this was reasonable retaliation, as if somehow these two events, the assassination of a German consular official and Kristallnacht could be reasonably connected.
Yes there was an assassination of a Nazi in Paris and yes Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Minister of Propaganda used this as the pretext for an assault on Jews in Germany.
The guidebook however reiterates the Nazi line, which is not only bizarre, but offensive.
In my next snippet of spare time, I must write to Lonely Planet and ask them to change this narrative.
p.s. I also just noted that my Lonely Planet guidebook ranks Dachau as #11 of Germany’s “Top 25 Experiences”- The subtitle on p. 20 is “Dark Moments in Dachau.”
I don’t really understand how you can “rank” something like this, and compare it to other tourist attractions in Germany.
But what caught my eye the most is the fact that in the summary about Dachau on p. 11 and later at p.113 there is no mention of Jews at all. The Lonely Planet narrative refers to Dachau as a concentration camp and notes that political prisoners were killed there, but there is no mention of Jews whatsoever.
A brief glance at Wikipedia shows that a general esitmate is that over 200,000 prisoners were murdered at Dachau, “of whom two-thirds were political prisoners, including many Catholic priests, and nearly one third were Jews.” [emphasis added].
