Nearly 90 years after a German officer defied Nazis on Kristallnacht, police pledge to protect Jews

The state-sponsored antisemitic violence of Kristallnacht (“Night of Broken Glass”) on November 9-10, 1938, was a cataclysmic turning point in history.Over 1,400 synagogues were burned and ransacked, including Germany's then-largest Neue Synagogue in Berlin. Because of one police officer's moral conviction, this historic synagogue was saved.Wilhelm Krutzfeld, the commander of Berlin's Police Precinct 16, and his fellow officers chased away the attackers, and the fire was extinguished in time, preserving this landmark place of worship. He defied Nazi orders that disallowed fires from being put out in synagogues and Jewish schools, residences, and businesses.Eighty-eight years later, on November 5, 2026, approximately 150 police leaders convened inside the Neue synagogue to commemorate Kristallnacht for the first time. Instead of protecting the synagogue from the outside, senior police leaders and representatives from the United States, Canada, Germany, and Europe stood inside in solidarity with Jewish congregants to show their commitment to combating antisemitism and securing a democratic society where people can worship freely without fear.The event was organized through a partnership between Rutgers University Miller Center on Policing, Germany's GDP (the German police), and the University of Virginia Center for Public Safety and Justice in collaboration with the International March of Living.It is part of the international police leadership initiative, “Operationalizing Never Again – Not on Our Watch,”