# UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM

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## Kristallnacht: A Nationwide Pogrom

Kristallnacht--literally, "Night of Crystal"--is usually referred to as the "Night of Broken Glass." It is the name given to the violent anti-Jewish pogrom of November 9 and 10, 1938. Instigated primarily by Nazi party officials and the SA (Nazi Storm Troopers), the pogrom occurred throughout Germany (including annexed Austria and the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia). The name Kristallnacht has its origin in the untold numbers of broken windows of synagogues, Jewish-owned stores, community centers, and homes plundered and destroyed during the pogrom. The term became a euphemism for this brutal pogrom and does not adequately convey the suffering it caused.

The Germans officially explained Kristallnacht as a spontaneous outburst of public rage in response to the assassination of Ernst vom Rath, a low-ranking official at the German embassy in Paris. Herschel Grynszpan, a 17-year-old Polish Jew, had shot vom Rath on November 7, 1938. A few days earlier, Grynszpan had received a postcard from his sister; she wrote that she and his parents, together with tens of thousands of Jews of Polish citizenship living in Germany (Grynszpan's parents had lived in Germany since 1911), had been expelled from Germany without notice. Initially denied entry into their native Poland but then physically driven across the border, Grynszpan's parents and the other expelled Polish Jews were stranded in a refugee camp near the town of Zbaszyn in the border region between Poland and Germany.

Vom Rath died on November 9, 1938, two days after the shooting. The Nazis blamed "World Jewry" for the assassination and, ostensibly as reprisal, unleashed a massive pogrom against Jews within the Third Reich.

Hundreds of synagogues all over Germany, including Austria, were vandalized, looted, and destroyed. Many were set ablaze and firemen were instructed to let the synagogues burn but to prevent flames from spreading to nearby structures. The shop windows of an estimated 7,500 Jewish-owned commercial establishments were smashed and the wares within looted. Jewish cemeteries were desecrated. Mobs of SA men roamed the streets, attacking Jews and killing about 100 persons. In despair at the destruction of their homes, many Jews, including entire families, were driven to suicide.

The pogrom was especially destructive in Berlin and Vienna, home to the two largest Jewish communities in the German Reich. Most of Berlin's synagogues were burned down and Jewish-owned stores and homes were looted and vandalized. Dozens of Jews were killed. In Vienna, most of the city's synagogues and small prayerhouses were destroyed, burned in full view of the fire departments and the public.

While for the most part not directly involved in the pogrom, the SS and the Gestapo (secret state police) used it as a pretext for the arrest of about 30,000 Jewish males. Most were sent to the Dachau, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen concentration camps. Subjected to brutal treatment, most were released over the next three months, on the condition that they begin the process of emigration from Germany. In all, it is estimated that 2,000-2,500 deaths, including those in concentration camps, were directly or indirectly attributable to the Kristallnacht pogrom.

The Nazis immediately claimed that the Jews themselves were to blame for the pogrom and imposed a fine of one billion reichsmarks (some 400 million U.S. dollars at 1938 rates) on the German Jewish community. The Reich confiscated all insurance payments that were to have been paid to Jews whose businesses and homes were looted or destroyed and the Jewish owners were made personally responsible for the cost of all repairs.

The November pogrom heralded a new wave of anti-Jewish legislation. In the weeks that followed, the German government promulgated dozens of laws and decrees, designed to deprive Jews of their property and of the means to earn a livelihood. In addition, these regulations served to exclude Jews from any sort of public social life. Laws were enacted to force the "Aryanization" (transfer to non-Jewish ownership) of Jewish-owned enterprises and property, usually for a fraction of their true value. Jewish schools were closed and those children still attending German schools were expelled. Jews were forbidden to practice most professions, required to sell their valuables to state purchasing offices, and subject to special taxation. Jewish ownership of automobiles was prohibited, drivers' licenses were withdrawn, and access to public transportation was greatly limited. Jews could no longer visit places of public entertainment to attend theater performances, concerts, and movies.

The Nazis appropriated the single act of a Jewish youth as an excuse to acquire the assets of the Jewish population for upcoming war efforts, exclude Jews from all aspects of public life, and further force Jewish emigration from Germany.

Further Reading

Gilbert, Martin. Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction. New York: HarperCollins, 2006.

Pehle, Walter H., editor. November 1938: From “Reichskristallnacht” To Genocide. New York: Berg, 1991.

Read, Anthony. Kristallnacht: The Nazi Night of Terror. New York: Times Books, 1989.

Schwab, Gerald. The Day the Holocaust Began: The Odyssey of Herschel Grynszpan. New York: Praeger, 1990.

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