November 9 was the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom. The Nazis swept up about 30,000 Jews to be interned in concentration camps, killing 90 and vandalizing thousands of Jewish businesses. The evening of November 8 this year, thugs in Amsterdam decided the best way to commemorate Kristallnacht was to repeat it.

Israeli professional soccer team Maccabi Tel Aviv traveled to Amsterdam for a match against its Ajax team. Many Israeli citizens were in town to watch the game. After the game, coordinated mobs hunted down Israelis for no other reason than that they are Jewish. Cell phone recordings on social media showed scenes like the following:

Such attacks feel more fitting in 19th-century Russia than 21st-century Netherlands. Most of the attackers appear to have been members of the Islamic community. Cell phone footage suggests the attackers acted in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza.

This is a much bigger issue than a failed immigration system or weak counterterrorism measures, however. Amsterdam’s Kristallnacht pogrom is an ominous warning for Dutch society at large.

What Happened

Reports suggest that Dutch-Arab Uber drivers orchestrated the attacks using Telegram and WhatsApp to coordinate with each other. Threads examined by the media show messages like “Tomorrow after the match at night part 2 Jew Hunt.” Some of those attacked used Uber during their stay in Amsterdam, which helped tip off whom to target.

A number of Maccabi fans were staying at Holland Casino, where many of the attacks happened. One of the largest incidents happened when hundreds of Maccabi fans tried to find refuge at the Holland Casino as taxi drivers surrounded the building looking for them. At least one casino security guard was involved in the Telegram group.

Five Israelis went to the hospital for wounds.

The situation was so tense that the Israeli government sent a plane to rescue Israelis from the Netherlands. The Israelis were flown to Tel Aviv. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar traveled to the Netherlands in response.

This isn’t Ukraine, Sudan or any other war-torn area. This is the Netherlands, supposedly the heart of a free, prosperous, tolerant Western Europe. And Israel’s citizens were so endangered that the nation had to launch a rescue mission to protect them.

Some of the Maccabi fans engaged in rowdy behavior prior to the pogrom, but tearing down a Palestinian flag or hurling insults doesn’t warrant being chased down like animals.

Such coordinated “Jew-hunting” is startling for 21st-century Western Europe. But that is not the most worrisome aspect of the events in Amsterdam.

No Help From the Police

Numerous reports suggest Dutch authorities were warned that something was going to happen. Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema removed a protest from Ajax’s stadium as a precaution. The municipality deployed 800 police officers.

However, it seems many authorities shrugged off the warnings. Dutch counterterrorism officers told Mayor Halsema that there was no threat to Israelis during the match. This was even as Israel’s Mossad shared intelligence with its Dutch counterpart suggesting otherwise. Due to the lack of a federal warning, Halsema claimed the police were caught off guard. The Dutch government is investigating what went wrong.

Even though social media confirms the participation of many people in the attacks, the vast majority of the 63 suspects apprehended by the Dutch police were quickly released. Only four remained in custody by the next day. (The authorities arrested five more as of Monday.)

The Dutch police have recently been accused of being influenced by anti-Semitism. Marcel de Weerd and Michel Theeboom, two Dutch-Jewish police officers, claimed in October that police forces in the Netherlands have been lax in protecting Jewish sites for political fears. “There are colleagues who no longer want to protect Jewish targets or events,” Theeboom told Nieuw Israëlisch Weekblad. “They talk about ‘moral dilemmas,’ and I see a tendency emerging to give in to that.”

Whether anti-Israel bias in the police force had anything to do with the pogrom is unknown. But why so few arrests? Why ignore Mossad’s warnings?

Going Forward

The Dutch government is condemning the pogrom. King Willem-Alexander, Prime Minister Dick Schoof and Amsterdam Mayor Halsema have all condemned the attacks. Amsterdam banned public protests for three days as a preventative measure going forward. And a large group gathered outside Amsterdam’s royal palace the day after to show solidarity with Israel.

The symbolism of attacking Jews the night before Kristallnacht—and in Amsterdam, the home of Anne Frank, the author of arguably the world’s most famous Holocaust memoir—is meaningful. And it points to dark days ahead for the Netherlands and Europe.

The Holocaust was one of humanity’s darkest moments. After World War ii concluded, the West looked at tragedies like Anne Frank’s and said, “Never again.” The new Europe would forsake its past of genocides, pogroms and intolerance. It would be a Europe of progress, freedom, human rights. The new Europe would be everything old Europe wasn’t.

Amsterdam itself fits in this mold of a new Europe in a special way: Its multiculturalism, recreational drug use and prostitution culture have made it Europe’s progressive capital. Hundreds of thousands visit Anne Frank’s hideaway, now a museum, each year. Amsterdam’s contributions to Holocaust education are a major part of its draw for tourists. Today’s Amsterdam is supposed to represent this new Europe in a microcosm.

Instead, we see a pogrom on its streets just in time for Kristallnacht’s anniversary. No matter how much Europe proclaims human rights and tolerance, no matter how much it adopts the glass-and-steel facade of modernity and progress, the ghosts of Europe’s past keep coming back.

It can be easy to point the finger at unassimilated Muslim communities, but Dutch society allowed the Islamization problem to get as bad as it has. Instead of dealing with the problem head-on, the “solutions” are bulletproof glass in synagogues and “interfaith dialogue” forums to “bridge the gap.”

Many Germans in 1938 were appalled at the violence of Kristallnacht. The pogrom was so controversial, Adolf Hitler even avoided commenting on it directly. Many international observers were also disgusted. But was anybody stirred to action to help the Jews? Very few, and because of that, Kristallnacht 1938 led to Auschwitz 1941.

What happens when attacks like these become normalized?

Where This Is Leading

The Bible has much to say about Europe’s current trajectory. Revelation 17 speaks of a “beast,” a biblical symbol for an empire (see Daniel 7). Related prophecies show this is referring to the Roman Empire. (Request a free copy of Who or What Is the Prophetic Beast?, by Herbert W. Armstrong, for more information.) But Rome fell long ago. What does this have to do with today?

The Apostle John described this beast as having seven heads, interpreted as seven consecutive rulers to reign over this empire, one after another (Revelation 17:3, 10). This system is supposed to last until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (verse 14). This is speaking of seven resurrections of ancient Rome, called the Holy Roman Empire.

History shows six such resurrections led by a strongman and guided by a church. Adolf Hitler led the sixth of these resurrections; this means there is one more to come. The Trumpet expects this resurrection to form in modern-day Europe—not just in one country but Continent-wide. And we expect the Netherlands to play a pivotal role in that resurrection.

Hitler’s empire gives us a good idea of what this European empire will look like. Through events like Kristallnacht, it also shows how a country can transform into a totalitarian state.

Amsterdam’s Kristallnacht pogrom is a sobering harbinger.

But there is a way of escape. The same Bible that prophesies of empires and bloodshed shows how you can be protected from the coming cataclysm. To learn more, request a free copy of The Holy Roman Empire in Prophecy.