The Kristallnacht commemoration will take place this evening in the Amsterdam Synagogue

The annual Kristallnacht commemoration will take place at the Portuguese synagogue in Amsterdam on Thursday. On the evening of November 9th, until November 10th, 1938, the Nazis attacked Jewish people and destroyed their buildings and properties throughout Germany. The windows of thousands of Jewish shops were smashed and 1,400 synagogues were set on fire.

The memorial service begins at 6:30 p.m. and is organized by the Centraal Joods Overleg (CJO), a coalition of Jewish organizations. Minister of Justice and Security David van Weel will be among those who will give a speech at the commemoration. Holocaust survivor and CJO chair Channa Hertzberger will also speak. There will also be live music and a minute's silence for the victims of the attack.

With the commemoration, the CJO wanted to “express solidarity with the Jewish community and work together for a future in which respect, tolerance and understanding are the focus,” it said. “Let us keep alive the memory of this dark time in history and continue to repeat the lessons it taught us so that together we can work towards a world free of hate and discrimination.”