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Kristallnacht

"Night of Crystal"  -  "Night of Broken Glass"

What does the word "Kristallnacht" mean?

"Kristallnacht" is a German word that consists of two parts: "Kristall" translates to "crystal" and refers to the look of broken glass and "Nacht" means "night." The accepted English translation is the "Night of Broken Glass."

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The most infamous Anti-Semitic Pogrom in recent history occurred on November 9, 1938.  Instigated primarily by Nazi party officials and the SA (Nazi Storm Troopers), the pogrom occurred throughout Germany (including annexed Austria and the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia). The name Kristallnacht has its origin in the untold numbers of broken windows of synagogues, Jewish-owned stores, community centers, and homes plundered and destroyed during the pogrom. The term became a euphemism for this brutal pogrom and does not adequately convey the suffering it caused.

Ernst Vom Rath

Early that evening Adolf Hitler attended a dinner party in Munich, during the course of the evening he received word of the death of Ernst Vom Rath, a German Diplomat stationed in Paris. Vom Rath was shot two days earlier by Herschel Grynszpan, a 17-year-old Polish Jew, who was angry that his parents, together with tens of thousands of Jews of Polish citizenship living in Germany (Grynszpan's parents had lived in Germany since 1911), had been expelled from Germany without notice.

Spurred by a decision of the Polish government on the 6th of October 1938 to withdraw all passports from Polish citizens who had remained abroad for over 5 years, German authorities were forced to either accept 15,000 stateless ex-Polish Jewish citizens on their soil or to send them back to their homeland before the withdrawal came into effect.

The Germans chose to deport them and on October 28, 1938, the Gestapo rounded up the Polish Jews within Germany, put them on transports, and then dropped them off on the Polish side of the Poland-Germany border (near Posen). With little food, water, clothing, or shelter in the middle of winter, thousands of these people died.  Among these Polish Jews were the parents of seventeen year old Herschel Grynszpan

Herschel Grynszpan

Upon receiving the news, Hitler conferred in private with Joseph Goebbels, and then left the dinner party without giving his planned speech. Goebbels immediately took the floor in his stead and after announcing the death of Vom Rath, (which he of course blamed on a Pan-Jewish conspiracy), he went on to say that anti-Jewish demonstrations (pogroms) although not organized by the Nazi Party "would not be hampered." 

While Goebbels made the case for the death of Vom Rath as the catalyst for the pogrom, plans were already in place, and orders given to unleash terror on the streets:

 

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TO ALL REGIONAL AND SUB-REGIONAL GESTAPO OFFICES
sent at 1:20AM, November 8, 1938

SUBJECT: MEASURES AGAINST THE JEWS THIS NIGHT
That only such measures were to be taken that would not endanger German lives or property (e.g. the burning of synagogues was only to be carried out if there was no danger of fire spreading to the surrounding district).  Businesses and residences of Jews may be damaged but not looted. Particular care is to be paid in business sections and surrounding streets. Non-Jewish businesses are to be protected from damage under all circumstances. Police are to seize all archives from synagogues and offices of community organizations, this refers to material of historical significance. Archives are to be handed over to the SS. (Because the synagogues were to be burned to the ground, the Nazis wanted the records of the Jews.) As soon as possible, officials are to arrest as many Jews especially wealthy ones - in all districts as can be accommodated in existing cells. For the time being, only healthy male Jews of not too advanced age are to be arrested.
 

Signed by Reinhard Heydrich,
SS Gruppenfürer

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Bystanders view the smashed windows

Goebbels speech set off a firestorm of violence throughout Germany and parts of Austria. Hundreds of synagogues were vandalized, looted, and destroyed. Many were set ablaze and firemen were instructed to let the synagogues burn, and only prevent flames from spreading to nearby  Aryan structures. The shop windows of an estimated 7,500 Jewish-owned commercial establishments were smashed and the wares within looted. Jewish cemeteries were desecrated. Mobs of SA men roamed the streets, attacking Jews and killing about 100 persons. In despair at the destruction of their homes, many Jews, including entire families, were driven to suicide.

Three days later, on November 12, Hermann Göring called a meeting of the top Nazi leadership to assess the damage done during the night and place responsibility for it. Present at the meeting were Göring, Goebbels, Reinhard Heydrich, Walter Funk and other ranking Nazi officials. The intent of this meeting was two-fold: to make the Jews responsible for Kristallnacht and to use the events of the preceding days as a rationale for promulgating a series of anti-Semitic laws which would, in effect, remove Jews from the German economy.

Göring's Speech:

'Gentlemen! Today's meeting is of a decisive nature,' Göring announced. 'I have received a letter written on the Fuehrer's orders requesting that the Jewish question be now, once and for all, coordinated and solved one way or another.'

'Since the problem is mainly an economic one, it is from the economic angle it shall have to be tackled. Because, gentlemen, I have had enough of these demonstrations! They don't harm the Jew but me, who is the final authority for coordinating the German economy. `If today a Jewish shop is destroyed, if goods are thrown into the street, the insurance companies will pay for the damages; and, furthermore, consumer goods belonging to the people are destroyed. If in the future, demonstrations which are necessary occur, then, I pray, that they be directed so as not to hurt us.

'Because it's insane to clean out and burn a Jewish warehouse, then have a German insurance company make good the loss. And the goods which I need desperately, whole bales of clothing and whatnot, are being burned, and I miss them everywhere. I may as well burn the raw materials before they arrive.

'I should not want to leave any doubt, gentlemen, as to the aim of today's meeting. We have not come together merely to talk again, but to make decisions, and I implore competent agencies to take all measures for the elimination of the Jew from the German economy, and to submit them to me.'

 

Joseph Goebbels

It was decided at the meeting that, since Jews were to blame for these events, they be held legally and financially responsible for the damages incurred by the pogrom. Accordingly, a "fine of 1 billion marks was levied for the slaying of Vom Rath, and 6 million marks paid by insurance companies for broken windows was to be given to the state coffers.

Following the meeting, a wide-ranging set of anti-Semitic laws were passed which had the clear intent, in Göring's words, of "Aryanizing" the German economy.

One final note on the November 12 meeting is of critical importance. In the meeting, Göring announced, "I have received a letter written on the Fuehrer's orders requesting that the Jewish question be now, once and for all, coordinated and solved one way or another." The path to the “Final Solution” has now been chosen. And, all the bureaucratic mechanisms for its implementation were now in place.

 

 


Sources:

USHMM

History of the Holoaust  -Franklin Watts 1882

Holocaust Chronicle -Publications International

Martin Gilbert, Final Journey, The Fate of the Jews in Nazi Europe London 1979
 

 


 

Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2007

 

 

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