KRISTALLNACHT 31
In a matter of hours after vom Rath’s death
on November 9, Nazis throughout Germany
went on a violent rampage, attacking
synagogues and Jewish businesses and
homes. The event came to be called
Kristallnacht (“Crystal Night”) for the
shattered window glass that littered the
streets. By the time the pogrom came to an
end a day later, around 100 synagogues had
been demolished and several hundred more
severely damaged by fire. Many Jewish
cemeteries had been desecrated, and at
least 7,500 Jewish-owned shops had been
sacked and looted.Cause and aftermath
Whether Hitler ever gave a specific order to launch the pogrom is
uncertain. Goebbels, the Propaganda Minister, was quick to claim
that the pogrom was an outburst of national anger in response to a
cowardly attack. As well as inciting racial hatred through propaganda,
the Nazis had institutionalized anti-semitism by teaching it in schools
and introducing the Nuremberg Laws in 1935, which stripped Jews of
German citizenship. Following the death of vom Rath, the Jews were
fined one billion Reichsmarks and told to repair all the damage the
pogrom had caused. About 30,000 Jewish men were arrested, most
of whom were transported to concentration camps.KRISTALLNACHT
In November 1938, a 17-year-old Polish Jew, Herschel
Grynszpan, assassinated Ernst vom Rath, a diplomat
working at the German Embassy in Paris. This triggered
a Nazi pogrom that would have disastrous consequences
for Jews throughout the Third Reich.
△ Anti-Jewish boycott
A Berlin shop window is vandalized during Kristallnacht with a poster warning shoppers not to buy
from Jews. A correspondent in Berlin for the Daily Telegraph reported, “racial hatred and hysteria
seemed to have taken complete hold of otherwise decent people.”△ Mark of a Jew
The pogrom had a lasting impact.
By 1941, all Jews in Germany had
to wear a yellow Star of David
with the word Jude ( Jew).US_030-031_F_Crystal_Night.indd 31 04/03/19 10:47 AM