For my weekly writing spot on this site, see the One-Minute Mystic, with a new meditation posted every Monday. Also see The Village, the story of Misty Longings, England's most beautiful village, posted episode by episode earlier this year.       As this week we ponder the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, we are taken inexorably back to 1543. Kristallnacht – "the night of the broken glass" – took place on November 9th, 1938, and was a coordinated attack on Jewish people in Germany and German controlled lands. 7,500 Jewish businesses were gutted, over 1,000 synagogues burned or destroyed, and 30,000 arrested by the Gestapo and taken to concentration camps. The pretext for the terror was the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris – but the blueprint for it had been in German hands for a long time; written by one of their favourite spiritual sons. Bishop Martin Sasse, a leading protestant and supporter of Hitler, applauded the burning of synagogues, and noted the timing with relish: "On November 10th, 1938, on Luther's birthday, the synagogues are burning in Germany." The German people should heed the words, he said, "of the greatest anti-semite of his time, the warner of his people against the Jews." Luther's pamphlet of 1543, On the Jews and their Lies, was much revered by the Nazis, and frequently quoted at their rallies. In it, Luther describes Jews as a "base, whoring people, that is, no people of God, and their boast of lineage, circumcision and law must be accounted as filth". He goes on to argue that their schools and synagogues should be set on fire; prayer books destroyed, homes razed and money and property confiscated. He also declares that these "poisoned envenomed worms" should be drafted into forced labour, or expelled for all time, adding: "we are at fault in not slaying them". Careless talk may cost lives; demonisation certainly does. And though the holocaust was to be perpetrated by the godless, it could not have happened without this history of "godly" nurture. There were Christian heroes in this bleak story. Pope Paul XI was an outspoken critic, and in 1937 was the first international voice to denounce Nazi racism. And over the next six years, many German Christians, both Protestants and Catholics, were to suffer and die for their opposition. The Jewish Albert Einstein was never to forget such solidarity. But in 1938, there was little organised resistance by Christians. For all its unease, the Confessing Church was "theologically, ecclesiastically and psychologically" ill-prepared to take on the state, and wrest the cross from the swastika. They were sons of Luther after all – the man who used the same aspiring nationalism now energising the Nazis, to break free from Rome in the 16th century Reformation. When you surf on the tide of nationalism, it is hard to jump off. Especially when your erstwhile leader is so clear in his teaching about this "base, whoring people". Heavy fines were imposed on the Jewish community after Kristallnacht, to pay for the damage done by sledgehammer and fire. Goering was delighted. "That will do the trick," he said. "The pigs won't commit a second murder so quickly. Incidentally, I must again say I wouldn't like to be a Jew in Germany." His words are repulsive. But almost gentle compared to Luther's. More writings © Simon Parke