Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht (“Crystal Night” or “Night of the Broken Glass”) is the name given to a series of riots organized by the Nazis against Jews that occurred throughout Germany and Austria on November 9 and 10, 1938.  The Nazis officially presented the riots as a spontaneous outburst provoked by the assassination of the third secretary of the German embassy in Paris, Ernst vom Rath by a 17-year old Polish Jew, Herschel Grynszpan. The truth was that they were carefully planned by Goebbels, Hitler’s Chief of Propoganda, and other high ranking Nazi advisors.

Prior to Kristallnacht, the Nazi authorities had been actively coercing Jews to leave the German Reich.  Though many Jews wanted to leave and had applied for visas to immigrate elsewhere, most countries were either closed to Jewish immigrants or their immigration was severely obstructed and limited. 

On October 28, 1938 approximately 17,000 Polish-born Jews who had immigrated to Germany during the Weimar Republic were forcibly expelled.  Poland refused them entry and they became stateless refugees in a border area between Germany and Poland near the Polish town of Zbaszyn.  Among these refugees were Zindel Grynspan and his family.  His seventeen year old son, Herschel, was living with an uncle in Paris. When Herschel received the news of his family’s expulsion, he went to the German Embassy in Paris intending to assassinate the German Ambassador. However, the ambassador was not there so Herschel settled for a lesser official, Ernst vom Rath.  He shot him as an act of revenge against the Nazi regime.  Vom Rath was critically wounded and died two days later on November 9.

On November 7, 1938, an inflammatory anti-Jewish editorial appeared in the Volkischer Beobachter, the official Nazi party newspaper.  Sporadic anti-Jewish rioting started the next day on November 8.  On November 9, Ernst vom Rath died and frenzied mass rioting broke out, resulting in the destruction of many synagogues, Jewish-owned shops, and homes. Approximately 30,000 Jewish men and boys, especially those who were influential and wealthy, were arrested and deported to the Nazi concentration camps at Dachau, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen.  Damage to Jewish property was estimated at several hundred million reichsmarks.  The Jewish community in Germany and Austria was fined one billion reichsmarks as a punishment for the murder of Ernst vom Rath.  Because so many Jews were required to sell their property and liquidate their assets to help the community pay the punishment fine, many Jewish properties became “Aryanized”.

Kristallnacht turned out to be a pivotal moment in the German policy towards Jews.  Because of the events of that week in November, it became clear to Hitler and his top advisors that forced immigration of Jews out of the Reich might not be feasible.  Most significant of all was the passivity and actual indifference of the German people at the time the riots occurred. It was clear to the Nazis that they would encounter little opposition not only from citizens but also from the German churches.

The actual term “Kristallnacht” was invented by the Nazis. Over the years the term has taken on a significance far beyond the tremendous quantity of broken glass that lined the streets.  It shows the extent of the evil and hatred of the Nazis.