Broken glass

Barring a presidential pardon, James Fields will die in prison.  The white nationalist who drove his car into a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville in 2017, killing Heather Heyer and injuring others, received a life sentence this week on various federal hate crimes.  Not before his attorneys, however, attempted to dissuade the judge with a story of family tragedy which clarified Fields's political views.  It seems that a female relative was murdered by an estranged lover  -- who was a Jew.

That sounded weirdly familiar.  I had to think about it for a while, but I think this was the justification for a historical event.  In 1938 a German diplomat in Paris was murdered by Herschel Grynszpan -- who was a Jew.  The Germans had no choice but to kill and arrest thousands of people and burn down synagogues and other buildings.  It is remembered as Kristallnacht.

The classics never go out of fashion.