CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Editor's Note: This story discusses antisemitism and the Holocaust, which includes descriptions of violent acts. Reader discretion is advised.
This week marks 85 years since Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass. That Nazi campaign against the Jews living in Germany in 1938 came to be called that because the destruction and vandalism of Jewish-owned businesses, homes and synagogues, leaving shattered glass all over the streets.
One of the survivors of that night, 97-year-old Irving Bienstock, lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, now.
"I was born in Germany," Bienstock said. "I left there because the Nazis came into power in 1933, and they tried to kill us."
Bienstock still clearly remembers facing antisemitism as a young boy when he would head home from school.
"The neighborhood kids, they knew I was Jewish, used to try and beat me up," Bienstock shared.
As things got harder and harder for Jews in Germany, his father was forced to flee to Belgium while he, his mother and his sister stayed behind.
"The Nazis ruled that Jews could no longer own a business," Bienstock recalled. "My father was an accountant for several Jewish businesses. The Gestapo came to our house looking for my father."
After that happened, Bienstock knew his family was in danger.
"I was scared," Bienstock said. "I thought they were going to kill us."
Then, Kristallnacht started on Nov. 9, 1938.
"That night in our city, the Nazis assembled in the plaza, and they were told they need to punish the Jews, and they could go into Jews' homes and smash everything," Bienstock described. "There were thousands of people in the streets yelling, 'Out with the Jews! Exterminate them.' There was a small Jewish synagogue on fire. There were fire engines there, but they did nothing to put the fire out, and the same thing was happening at two other synagogues. They came into the Jewish homes and beat up people."
They came for his family, too.
"After awhile, they came into our house," Bienstock said. "They broke the front door, and they came in. There was a Christian woman upstairs, and she met the mob and told them we'd been deported, and there wasn’t any Jews living there."
That neighbor managed to save their lives.
"They came into our apartment and started to smash our dishes and stuff like that," Bienstock said.
They lost everything that night. That's when they knew Germany was no longer safe for them.
"The policeman said to my mother, 'You dirty Jew, we warned you to get out of Germany,'" Bienstock recalled.
His mother bravely managed to smuggle her kids out and, through a series of miracles, helped reunite Bienstock’s core family members. They then moved to the United States. Bienstock even served in the American military. His extended family were all killed in the Holocaust.
Seeing what's currently happening in the Israel-Hamas war sits differently with him considering what he went through in Germany.
" I’m very worried what’s happening with Israel," Bienstock said. "I'm very, very concerned."
He can’t help but stay glued to news coverage after Hamas militants stormed from the blockaded Gaza Strip into nearby Israeli towns on Oct. 7.
"I spent all day on television listening to what’s going on and what’s happening there," Bienstock admitted.
He said he's scared to be Jewish right now and that he's recognizing antisemitism in the United States. He fears what he went through as a child could happen again.
That's why he works with what’s called The Butterfly Project which is a national program that helps students understand the painful history of the Holocaust and the bigotry that led to it.
"I realized, once I was gone, nobody will know what the Nazis did to us, that they killed my whole family, six million Jewish people, including all my family," Bienstock said. "I don’t have any family. I'm alone."
Bienstock meets with middle schoolers at the Levine Jewish Community Center in Charlotte and talks about what he and his family endured.
"I need to tell it to the young people so that they know what happened," Bienstock said.
There is a commemoration of Kristallnacht on Sunday at Queens University from 3 to 4 p.m. that is free and open to the public. Registration encouraged but not required.
Contact Michelle Boudin at mboudin@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
The Levin Jewish Community Center has a list of education, donation and advocacy resources online in relevance to the Israel-Hamas War.