Kristallnacht

“Kristallnacht”: a nationwide pogrom

Kristallnacht (literally, “Night of Crystal”) is often translated from German as “Night of Broken Glass.” It refers to the violent anti-Semitic pogrom that took place on November 9 and 10, 1938. The pogrom took place throughout Germany, which by then included Austria and the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. Hundreds of synagogues in the German Empire were attacked, burned, looted and destroyed. Most of them were set on fire. Firefighters were ordered to let the synagogues burn but prevent the flames from spreading to nearby buildings. The windows of thousands of Jewish-owned stores were broken and their goods were looted. Jewish cemeteries were violated. Many Jews were attacked by Storm Troopers (SA) gangs. At least 91 Jews died in the pogrom.

ORIGIN OF THE NAME KRISTALLNACHT

Kristallnacht owes its name to the pieces of broken glass that covered German streets after the pogrom. These are the broken glass left over from the windows of synagogues, homes and Jewish businesses that were looted and destroyed during the violence.

 

 ASSASSINATION OF ERNST VOM RATH

The violence was mainly instigated by Nazi Party officials and members of the SA (Sturmabteilungen: literally Assault Detachments, but commonly known as Storm Troopers) and the Hitler Youth.

 

NOVEMBER 9–10

It seems that these words of Goebbels were taken as an order to initiate violence. Regional Party leaders gathered after his speech and sent instructions to their local offices. Violent incidents began to break out in various parts of the Reich in the late hours and early morning hours of November 9-10. At 1:20 a.m. on November 10, Reinhard Heydrich, in his capacity as head of the Security Police (Sicherheitspolizei), sent an urgent telegram with instructions regarding the riots to the headquarters and State Police headquarters, as well as to SA leaders in various districts. Throughout Germany and its annexed territories, SA and Hitler Youth units played a role in the destruction of Jewish homes and businesses. Members of many units wore civilian clothes to support the fiction that this unrest was an expression of 'angry public reaction'. Despite external appearances of spontaneous violence and the local emergence of the pogrom in various regions throughout the Reich, Heydrich's central orders provided specific instructions: "Spontaneous" rioters would take no steps that would endanger non-Jewish German life or property, and would not kill foreigners (foreign Jews). Before burning down the synagogues, they would remove all synagogue archives and other property of Jewish communities and transfer this archival material to the Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst, or SD). The orders also stated that police authorities should arrest as many Jews as local prisons could accommodate, preferably young and healthy men.

 

 

 

 

DESTRUCTION OF SYNAGOGUES AND BUILDINGS

Rioters destroyed 267 synagogues across Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland. Many synagogues burned throughout the night in front of the public and local firefighters, who were only ordered to intervene to prevent the flames from spreading to nearby buildings. Throughout the country, SA and Hitler Youth members smashed the storefronts and looted the goods of an estimated 7,500 Jewish-owned commercial establishments. Jewish cemeteries have become particular targets of desecration in many regions. The pogrom was particularly devastating in Berlin and Vienna, home to the two largest Jewish communities in the German Reich. SA gangs roamed the streets and attacked Jews living in their homes, forcing the Jews they encountered to perform acts that would humiliate them in public. Although murders were not included in the central directives, Kristallnacht took the lives of at least 91 Jews between 9 and 10 November. Police records from the period document numerous rapes and suicides as a result of violence.

ARRESTS OF JEWISH MEN

As the pogrom spread, SS and Gestapo (Secret State Police) troops—following Heydrich's instructions—arrested some 30,000 Jewish men and transported many of them from local prisons to Dachau, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen, and other concentration camps.

15.02.2024 12:55 Kristallnacht | Holocaust Encyclopedia https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/tr/article/kristallnacht 5/7 During Kristallnacht (“Night of Broken Glass”), locals watch as the ceremonial hall at the Graz Jewish cemetery burns. During Kristallnacht (“Night of Broken Glass”), locals watch as the ceremonial hall at the Graz Jewish cemetery burns. Graz, Austria, 9–10 November 1938. Dokumentationsarchiv des Oesterreichischen Widerstandes Importantly, Kristallnacht marks the first time the Nazi regime imprisoned Jews on a mass scale based solely on their ethnicity. Hundreds of people died in the camps as a result of the brutal treatment they endured. Over the next three months, many of them were released on the condition that they begin immigration proceedings from Germany. Indeed, the effects of the Kristallnacht event would act as an incentive for Jewish emigration from Germany in the coming months.

 

CONCLUSION

In the short-lived aftermath of the pogrom, many German leaders, such as Hermann Göring, criticized the extensive financial losses caused by the anti-Semitic riots, pointing out that if nothing was done to intervene, German insurance companies, not Jewish-owned businesses, would have to bear the cost of the damages. Göring and other senior Party leaders nevertheless decided to take advantage of the opportunity to introduce measures aimed at expelling Jews and perceived Jewish influence from the German economic sphere.

The German government immediately made an official statement, announcing that the "Jews" were the real culprits of the pogrom, and imposed a fine of one billion Reichsmarks (about 400 million US dollars according to 1938 exchange rates) on the German Jewish community. The Reich government confiscated all insurance payments due to Jews whose businesses and homes were looted and rendered unusable, making Jewish owners personally liable for the cost of all repairs.

 ANTI-SEMITIC LEGISLATION

In the weeks that followed, the German government issued dozens of laws and decrees designed to deprive Jews of their property and livelihood. Many of these laws imposed a policy of “Aryanization,” that is, the transfer of Jewish-owned businesses and property to “Aryan” ownership, often at a fraction of their actual value. The next legislation prohibited Jews, who were already ineligible for employment in the public sector, from practicing many professions in the private sector. Other steps were also taken in the legislation to exclude Jews from social life. German education authorities expelled Jewish children still attending German schools. German Jews lost the right to hold a driver's license or own an automobile. Legislation restricted the use of public transportation. Jews were no longer allowed into “German” theatres, cinemas or concert halls.

 

TURNING POINT

Condemnation of Kristallnacht by the United States

On November 9, 1938, the Nazis staged a nationwide pogrom (massacre) against the Jews. During the pogrom known as the “Night of Broken Glass”, Storm Troopers (SA) destroyed thousands of Jewish businesses and hundreds of synagogues. Approximately 100 Jews lost their lives during this time. This scene is from a protest rally in New York. Rabbi Stephen S. Wise expressed the outrage of the American Jewish community. As part of the United States' official protest, Franklin D. Roosevelt recalled the American ambassador from Germany. Grinberg Archives

The events of Kristallnacht represented one of the most important turning points in National Socialist antisemitic policy. Historians point out that after the pogrom, anti-Jewish policies were increasingly concentrated in the hands of the SS. Moreover, the passive attitude of most German civilians towards violent events sent the message to the Nazi regime that German society was ready for more radical measures.

In the coming years, the Nazi regime expanded and radicalized measures aimed at completely eliminating Jews from German economic and social life. Over time, the regime turned to forced migration policies and finally to policies of realizing a "Jewless" (judenrein) Germany by deporting the Jewish population to the "East".

Kristallnacht therefore figures as an important turning point in Nazi Germany's persecution of Jews, culminating in the attempt to eliminate European Jews.

 

Source: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/tr/article/kristallnacht