Berlin - Germans cannot be indifferent to anti-Semitism, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday at a Berlin ceremony to recall a 1938 pogrom against Jewish residents of Germany.

"Indifference is the first step towards endangering essential values," Merkel said during Germany's national memorial ceremony at the old synagogue in Berlin's Rykestrasse.

"Germany needs a climate that encourages moral courage," Merkel said. "Xenophobia, racism and anti-Semitism must never be given an opportunity in Europe again."

She said this was just as true in Arab nations and in other parts of the world.

Nobody could stay silent when a rabbi was beaten up in full view on the street or a Jewish cemetery was vandalized. Yet in the Nazi period, the majority of Germans did not have the courage to protest.

"It is a mistake to think it doesn't affect you when your neighbours are affected," Merkel added. "This mistake just leads us further and further into evil."

The ceremony recalled Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, when Nazis smashed up Jewish-owned shops, burned or ransacked synagogues and killed 91 people throughout Germany, according to the official toll.

The late November 9, 1938 pogrom, a precursor to the Holocaust, ultimately led to more than 1,300 deaths from injuries, by suicide or in concentration camps, official historians add. (dpa)