Kristallnacht+(+night+of+broken+glass)

Edited by Ben and Abbey

=__Kristallnacht, "The Night of Broken Glass":__=



The evening of November 9 of 1938, a massive, coordinated attack on Jews throughout the German Reich took place. This event was a sequence of attacks against the Jewish people throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria.

Why:
The attack came after Herschel Grynszpan, a 17 year old Jew living in Paris, shot and killed a member of the German Embassy staff there in retaliation for the poor treatment his father and his family suffered at the hands of the Nazis in Germany. On October 27, Grynszpan's family and over 15,000 other Jews, originally from Poland, had been expelled from Germany without any warning. They were forcibly transported by train in boxcars then dumped at the Polish border. For Adolf Hitler and Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, the shooting in Paris provided an opportunity to incite Germans to "rise in bloody vengeance against the Jews."

What:
On November 9, mob violence broke out as the regular German police stood by and crowds of spectators watched. Nazi troops along with members of the SS and Hitler Youth beat and murdered people of the Jewish religion. They also broke into and wrecked Jewish homes, and brutalized Jewish women and children. This took place all over Germany, Austria and other Nazi controlled areas. Jewish shops and department stores had their windows smashed and contents destroyed. Synagogues were especially targeted for vandalism, including desecration of sacred Torah scrolls. Hundreds of synagogues were systematically burned while local fire departments stood by or simply prevented the fire from spreading to surrounding buildings. About 25,000 Jewish men were rounded up and later sent to concentration camps where they were often brutalized and tortured by SS guards and in some cases randomly chosen to be beaten to death. During this incident ninety-one Jews were slaughtered and 30,000 Jewish men were taken to concentration camps, where they were then tortured and laboured for various months. Approximately 1,668 synagogues were vandalised, and 267 were burned to the ground. The trigger that activated this brutality was the assasination of a German diplomat named Ernst vom Rath. The reaction outside Germany to Kristallnacht was shock and outrage, creating a storm of negative publicity in newspapers and among radio commentators that served to isolate Hitler's Germany from the civilized nations. This weaken any pro-Nazi sentiments in those countries. Shortly after Kristallnacht, the United States recalled its ambassador permanently. In Germany, on November 12, top Nazis, including Hermann Göring and Joseph Goebbels, held a meeting concerning the economic impact of the damage and to discuss further measures to be taken against the Jewish. SS leader Reinhard Heydrich reported 7500 businesses destroyed, 267 synagogues burned (with 177 totally destroyed) and 91 Jews killed. Heydrich requested new decrees barring Jews from any contact with Germans by excluding them from public transportation, schools, even hospitals, essentially forcing them into ghettos or out of the country. Goebbels said the Jewish peoples would be made to clean out the debris from burned out synagogues which would then be turned into parking lots. At this meeting it was decided to eliminate Jews entirely from economic life in the Reich by transferring all Jewish property and enterprises to 'Aryans,' with minor compensation given to the Jews in the form of bonds. Regarding the economic impact of the damage from Kristallnacht and the resulting massive insurance claims, Hermann Göring stated the Jews themselves would be billed for the damage and that any insurance money due to them would be confiscated by the State.



The origin of the name "Night of Broken Glass" refers to when the SA stormtroopers and civilians demolished buildings and shattered windows leaving the streets shielded in glass.


 * "I shall close the meeting with these words," said Göring, "German Jewry shall, as punishment for their abominable crimes, et cetera, have to make a contribution for one billion marks. That will work. The swine won't commit another murder. Incidentally, I would like to say that I would not like to be a Jew in Germany."**

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The Night of Broken Glass was later followed by political and economic persecution of the Jewish people. This event is viewed as a part of Nazi Germany's racial policy and the beginning of the Final Solution. A law during this time was also passed against kosher butchering. In the public schools Jewish children were also starting to be treated a lot differently than usual and then came restrictions. In 1935 the Nuremberg Laws, dispossesed the Jews of German citizenship, and by 1936 they no longer had the right to vote in parliamentary elections. In early 1938, various laws were passed by Hitler limiting Jewish economic activities as well as job oppertunities. Another law was passed in 1938 declaring that all Jews must carry identification cards, a few months later any Jews of Polish citizenship were then later shipped back across the Polish border. All in all, every law and action passed during this time period was absolutely disgusting, but the "Night of The Broken Glass" was the start of the full blown extermination of the Jewish race.

__From Heinrich Müller to all Gestapo offices - transmitted at 11:55 p.m., November 9, 1938:__ 1) Actions against Jews, especially against their synagogues, will take place throughout the Reich shortly. They are not to be interfered with; however, liaison is to be effected with the Ordnungspolizei to ensure that looting and other significant excesses are suppressed. 2) So far as important archive material exists in synagogues this is to be secured by immediate measures. 3) Preparations are to be made for the arrest of about 20,000 to 30,000 Jews in the Reich. Above all well-to-do Jews are to be selected. Detailed instructions will follow in the course of this night. 4) Should Jews in possession of weapons be encountered in the course of the action, the sharpest measures are to be taken. Verfugungstruppen der SS as well as general SS can be enlisted for all actions. Control of the actions is to be secured in every case through the Gestapo. Looting, larceny etc. is to be prevented in all cases. For securing material, contact is to be established immediately with the responsible SD...leadership. Addendum for Stapo Cologne: In the Cologne synagogue there is especially important material. This is to be secured by the quickest measures in conjunction with SD. __From Reinhard Heydrich to all Gestapo and SD district and subdistrict offices - transmitted at 1:20 a.m., November 10, 1938:__ __Concerning: measures against Jews in the present night.__ On account of the assassination of the Leg. Sec. v. Rath in Paris, demonstrations against the Jews are to be expected throughout the Reich in the present night... ...the political leadership is to be informed that the German police have received the following instructions from the Reichsführer SS and Chief of Police, to which the measures of the political leadership should be adapted, appropriately: a) Only such measures should be taken as will not endanger German life or property (i.e. synagogue burning only if there is no fire-danger to the surroundings). b) Businesses and dwellings of Jews should only be destroyed, not plundered. The police are instructed to supervise this regulation and to arrest looters. c) Special care is to be taken that in business streets non-Jewish businesses are absolutely secured against damage. d) Foreign nationals - even if they are Jews - should not be molested... 5) Directly after the termination of the events of this night, the employment of the officials deployed [for the demonstrations] permitting, as many Jews - especially the well-off ones - are to be arrested as can be accommodated in the available prison space. Above all only healthy, male Jews, not too old, are to be arrested. Immediately after execution of the arrests contact is to be made with the appropriate concentration camp regarding the quickest committal of the Jews to the camp. Special care is to be taken that the Jews arrested on this order are not maltreated. 6) The content of this order is to be passed on to the responsible inspectors and commanders of the Ordnungspolizei and to the SD-Ober- and Unterabschnitten, with the rider that the Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police has ordered these measures...
 * Orders to the Gestapo reguarding the Kristallacht:**

[] [] http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/knacht1a.htm http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/kristallnacht.html