The Jewish and Holocaust Museums of Oporto celebrate the International Day against Antisemitism on November 9th. Although antisemitism takes many forms, from the extreme left, the extreme right or the political centre, the date corresponds to the 84th Anniversary of Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass"), a pogrom organized by the Nazis on the night of November 9, 1938.
At the Holocaust Museum of Oporto, an exhibition related to the “Night of Broken Glass” will be inaugurated. It will be presented by Dr. Michael Rothwell, director of the Museum, whose family was victimized that night, as every window in his grandfather's shoe shop was violently smashed. The ceremony will be attended by the Mekor Haim Choir, who will sing songs dedicated to the Holocaust, and a flame will be lit in the Museum's Memorial Room with the names of tens of thousands of people murdered. The lighting of the flame will be carried out by students from the schools present.
At the Jewish Museum of Oporto, the program will include a guided tour of the Modern Antisemitism Room, which shows the growth of the phenomenon in Portugal between 2015 and 2022 and the screening of the film "Sefarad", which tells the story of the Portuguese Dreyfus – Captain Barros Basto –, who was expelled from the army for being a Jew in 1937 in a sordid process that began with anonymous denunciations by the scum of society, which the Portuguese State used for convenience despite knowing that they were false, as it aimed to destroy the leader of the Jewish Community of Oporto and the organization itself. The captain's granddaughter, Isabel Barros Lopes, will be with the young people watching the film and always available to answer their questions.
Generations after the end of the Shoah, antisemitism is worryingly on the rise, in Europe and beyond. The European Union is determined to put an end to it. The EU strategy on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life (2021-2030) is a very ambitious strategy that faces much resistance not only in the general societies but also in national governments and parliaments.
