Nov 9, 1938:
Nazis launch Kristallnacht
On this day in 1938, in an event that would foreshadow the Holocaust, German Nazis launch a campaign of terror against Jewish people and their homes and businesses in Germany and Austria. The violence, which continued through November 10 and was later dubbed “Kristallnacht,” or “Night of Broken Glass,” after the countless smashed windows of Jewish-owned establishments, left approximately 100 Jews dead, 7,500 Jewish businesses damaged and hundreds of synagogues, homes, schools and graveyards vandalized. An estimated 30,000 Jewish men were arrested, many of whom were then sent to concentration camps for several months; they were released when they promised to leave Germany. Kristallnacht represented a dramatic escalation of the campaign started by Adolf Hitler in 1933 when he became chancellor to purge Germany of its Jewish population.
The Nazis used the murder of a low-level German diplomat in Paris by a 17-year-old Polish Jew as an excuse to carry out the Kristallnacht attacks. On November 7, 1938, Ernst vom Rath was shot outside the German embassy by Herschel Grynszpan, who wanted revenge for his parents’ sudden deportation from Germany to Poland, along with tens of thousands of other Polish Jews. Following vom Rath’s death, Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels ordered German storm troopers to carry out violent riots disguised as “spontaneous demonstrations” against Jewish citizens. Local police and fire departments were told not to interfere. In the face of all the devastation, some Jews, including entire families, committed suicide.
In the aftermath of Kristallnacht, the Nazis blamed the Jews and fined them 1 billion marks (or $400 million in 1938 dollars) for vom Rath’s death. As repayment, the government seized Jewish property and kept insurance money owed to Jewish people. In its quest to create a master Aryan race, the Nazi government enacted further discriminatory policies that essentially excluded Jews from all aspects of public life.
Over 100,000 Jews fled Germany for other countries after Kristallnacht. The international community was outraged by the violent events of November 9 and 10. Some countries broke off diplomatic relations in protest, but the Nazis suffered no serious consequences, leading them to believe they could get away with the mass murder that was the Holocaust, in which an estimated 6 million European Jews died.
Also on This Day
- American Revolution
- Sumter evades Wemyss in South Carolina, 1780
- Automotive
- Robert McNamara becomes president of Ford Motor Company, 1960
- Civil War
- Burnside assumes command of the Union Army of the Potomac, 1862
- Cold War
- East Germany opens the Berlin Wall, 1989
- Crime
- A Sunday school teacher murders his family and goes undercover for 18 years, 1971
- Disaster
- Fire rips through Boston, 1872
- General Interest
- Roosevelt travels to Panama, 1906
- Nazis suppressed in Munich, 1923
- Sartre renounces communists, 1956
- The Great Northeast Blackout, 1965
- Hollywood
- Kodak Theatre, new home of Oscars, opens, 2001
- Literary
- Best-selling Millennium trilogy author Stieg Larsson dies at 50, 2004
- Music
- Willie Nelson’s assets are seized by the IRS, 1990
- Old West
- Followers of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse identified as hostile, 1875
- Presidential
- Teddy Roosevelt establishes a naval base in the Philippines, 1901
- Sports
- Army and Notre Dame fight to a draw, 1946
- Vietnam War
- Antiwar protestor sets himself afire, 1965
- Captain Lance Sijan shot down over North Vietnam, 1967
- Supreme Court refuses to rule on legality of Vietnam War, 1970
- World War I
- Australian warship Sydney sinks German Emden , 1914
- World War II
- “The Night of Broken Glass”, 1938
This Week in History, Nov 9 – Nov 15
- Nov 09, 1938
- Nazis launch Kristallnacht
- Nov 10, 1969
- Sesame Street debuts
- Nov 11, 1918
- World War I ends
- Nov 12, 1954
- Ellis Island closes
- Nov 13, 1982
- Vietnam Veterans Memorial dedicated
- Nov 14, 1851
- Moby-Dick published
- Nov 15, 1867
- First stock ticker debuts
Related articles
- Exhibit focuses on Nazis’ “aryanization” program (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Anti-Semitism, a Growth Industry in Bad Times (papundits.wordpress.com)
- Kristallnacht. (socialpathology.blogspot.com)
- ABC’s of the Holocaust (wiki.answers.com)
- Benedict XVI reflects with Jewish leaders on the horror of the Shoah and the Nazi terror (insightscoop.typepad.com)
- German Jews praise pope but warn on Pius XII and Holocaust – Reuters (news.google.com)
