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12016-10-17T10:19:41-04:00media/Stop111.jpgKristallnacht49image_header2020-10-28T16:29:06-04:00On 9 November 1938, Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass, also known as the November Pogrom) began. A supposedly spontaneous demonstration by German citizens, it was in fact carefully planned.
Background
Angered by his parents' forced deportation from Germany, Herschel Grynszpan shot Ernst vom Rath, the Third Secretary to the German Embassy in Paris on November 7, 1938. When vom Rath died the following day, Joseph Goebbels convinced Nazi leaders that this was the perfect excuse for an "action" against the Jewish population of Germany. The state-supported rioting that occurred on November 9 and 10 resulted in the burning of several hundred synagogues along with their Torah scrolls, prayer books, and ceremonial objects. Seven thousand Jewish businesses were looted and destroyed, 30,000 citizens were arrested throughout Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland, and more than 90 Jews were killed.
Several hundred synagogues were destroyed during the Kristallnacht riots. Most were gutted by fire as fire brigades only protected non-Jewish properties from destruction. Sacred religious objects were desecrated or destroyed by crowds of Nazi loyalists, who threw the artifacts into the street and burned them in full view of the public.
The Jewish community was subsequently fined one billion Reichsmark ($400 million at 1938 notes) for the damage done to their property.
Listen to Walter Loebenberg describe his experiences during Kristallnacht in Germany:
Listen to Edith Simon discuss Kristallnacht in Germany:
