Today is Veterans Day, a day we set aside to honor the military men and women whose sacrifices defend our shores and individual freedoms.

It’s not the only observance this week that reminds us of their sacrifice.

It was 75 years ago Saturday, Nov. 9, 1938, that Germany’s Third Reich turned an irreversible corner in its conquest of Erope — and drew an uncommitted United States closer to a decision to enter the conflict that post-Depression Americans were reluctant to join.

In a hate-stirred frenzy forever to be known as Kristallnacht — the “night of broken glass” — mobs destroyed 1,000 synagogues and 7,000 Jewish-owned businesses in cities across Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia.

Soon after, Nazi forces rounded up 30,000 Jews and sent them to concentration camps. In one night, Germany went from discrimination to genocide of the Jewish people.

It would take another three years and an air attack by Japan on the other side of the planet before the United States would be drawn into World War II. It would be another three and a half years beyond that before U.S. and allied forces stormed the beach at Normandy to engage the Nazi foe. Finally in April and May 1945 — a full five and a half years after the beginning of the Holocaust — invading allied forces discovered the death camps and understood the depths of the evil they had stopped.

It’s difficult to remember that the men and women who stopped Hitler were barely more than children, in their teens and early 20s. Now in their 80s and 90s, most remain reluctant to even talk about the war atrocities they experienced. As their numbers dwindle, so do their personal stories.

This Veterans Day serves as a reminder that war changes things, but mostly that it changes people. Entire families, communities and nations on both sides of the conflict bear the spiritual scars of battle. Sacrifices of the few leave an impact on the many. A visit to the memorials in Butler’s Diamond Square, and the names inscribed upon them, remind us of the personal and community sacrifices made in wartime.

In Germany, where Jews were virtually eliminated, something remarkable is happening with little notice by the world. Twenty years ago, then-chancellor Helmut Kohl signed a decree allowing any Jew to immigrate to Germany, no questions asked, no conditions set. More than 200,000 have done so, most of them from Russia. Synagogues are being rebuilt where they once stood prior to their destruction Nov. 9, 1938.

Today we observe Veterans Day by honoring the sacrifice of military personnel past and present. We also should remember Kristallnacht by continuing to fight against the evils our soldiers fought against — hatred, racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, homophobia, Islamophobia and all other bigotry.

By our collective vigilance against such evils, perhaps we can eliminate, or at least reduce, the prospect of future wars.