Kristallnacht Turning Point In History

On November 9, 1938 a Jewish teenager murdered a German official in Paris, France. You’re probably wondering what this has to do with the Holocaust. Well, the killing of this diplomat set of the Nazi’s causing massive destruction among the Jews. Over 250 synagogues were burned and more than 7,000 Jewish owned businesses were destroyed or robbed. This destruction is known as Kristallnacht, literally translated to “Night of Crystal” which we understand as “The Night of Broken Glass” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). The reasons to listen are so that you understand what happened and can prevent this, or something like this, from happening again. Kristallnacht was important because after this everyone blamed the Jews for

Kristallnacht, or the "Night of Broken Glass", is one of the most crucial events in German, Jewish, and World History. Before, the Jews were simply assaulted and verbally abused. However, on the night of November 9, 1938, an unplanned and extremely violent action against the Jews occurred. In two days, over 250 synagogues were burnt down while the fire department did nothing to stop it, over 7,000 Jewish businesses were trashed and looted, Jews were murdered, Jewish cemeteries, schools, hospitals, and homes were looted by SS while the police attempted to preserve them but failed. Before Kristallnacht, Jews ' lives were not threatened. Historically Jews were not welcome by many countries which

So at this point in time Jews were very restricted. One Jewish teenager, Herschel Grinszpan, was living in Paris. His father was relocated by the Nazis to Poland. He decided that he was going to assassinate the German ambassador. He went to the embassy, but he was not able to locate his target. So he tried to assassinate Third Secretary Ernst vom Rath instead. Ironically, Rath was an anti-Nazi. Even though Rath was only a minor official, Hitler used propaganda to convince people that the act was an international conspiracy by Jews everywhere. Hitler made it seem as though Jews were attacking Germany itself. This is what led to Kristallnacht. The act of one Jew gave Hitler exactly the excuse he needed to hurt the Jews en masse and in public. It gave him the excuse for the government to condone mass destruction of Jewish property and businesses.

During this time the Jews were not expecting for what came, and was very unprepared for the step by step process that happened to make them disappear (Boag). “Up until the nationwide anti-Jewish violence of 1938, known as Kristallnacht, many Jews in Germany expected to be able to hold out against Nazi-sponsored persecution,” (“Holocaust Memorial Council”). The Jewish people of Germany looked at themselves to be German and did many things to prove it, like fight for their country in World War I (“Holocaust Memorial Council”). More than 10,000 Jewish people died fighting for their country in World War I, and many others that didn’t die were congratulated for the work they did by receiving a medal (“Holocaust Memorial Council”).

Mobile killing units...began shooting massive numbers of Jews and Gypsies in open fields and ravines on the outskirts of conquered cities and towns” (Bulow). On a night known as the Night of Broken Glass, a Nazi leader “...reported 7500 businesses destroyed, 267 synagogues burned (177 totally destroyed) and 91 Jews killed” (“Night”). Along with these ruthless acts, millions died in ghettos and concentration camps also from starvation, brutality, forced labor, or execution.

One of the most well known attacks on the Jews was known as Night of Broken Glass. On the November 9, 1938, violence against Jews broke out across Germany. The Germanys tried to make it appeared like the violence was an unplanned attack, set off by the assassination of a German official in Paris at the hands of a Jewish teenager. In two days, over 1,000 synagogues were burned, 7,000 Jewish businesses were trashed and looted, dozens of Jewish people were killed, and Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, schools, and homes were looted while police and fire brigades stood by. http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/kristall.htm

It is known as the night of broken glass because the Jewish property that was attacked literally had glass all over the roads and sidewalks, if the property was not burned to the ground by nazis. These anti-jewish attacks by the nazis happened to almost all the Jewish stores, synagogues, and houses, they killed around 100 jews. Nazi followers destroyed many synagogues and took many Torahs which were later destroyed. The firefighters on the scene only tried to prevent the fire from spreading across to other buildings, and just sat and watched the jewish synagogues, stores, and houses burn to the ground. Kristallnacht was one of the first violent actions that the nazis had done to the jews, before that they were mostly nonviolent.

The Holocaust was a time full of death and sorrow, many people were traumatized from this horrific event, even those who were not put into concentration camps against their own will. The Author John Roth says that the killing of millions of Jews began in the month of March, 1933. This was made possible by the Nazi’s suspending the constitution in Germany, resulting in Hitler receiving all power. Overall, Hitler was the major influence that pushed the Holocaust (Roth; Web), after receiving 18 percent in the polls. Hitler encouraged horrible things aside from Putting Jews in concentration camps such as “The Night of Broken Glass”. This event was a night that many people would not forgot as

On November 9, 1938, Kristallnacht occurred, it was a horrific day for European Jews. Kristallnacht means “The Night of Broken Glass.¨ On that night Jewish people got beaten and killed, their homes got broken into, and Jewish women and children got brutalized. Synagogues got burnt down and Jewish stores were destroyed.

At the beginning of 19th century, the form of anti-Semitism becomes more serious. Germanys seems to isolate and eliminate Jews. When the Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler, comes to power in Germany in 1933, it wants to set up the Perfect Nazi state. The Nazi wants to stamp out any opposition to their rule, so they set up a system of camps, for instance, concentration camps, death camps for holding people that they see as “undesirable”. Lots of those “undesirable” people are Jews. From 1933 to 1945, about six million Jews are murdered and it is called the Holocaust. The Holocaust is the greatest single case of mass murder in history and is difficult to ignore. After World War II, survivors of the Holocaust tell their

The third stage of the Holocaust was Kristallnacht in 1938 were Nazi officials set a nationwide campaign against the Jewish population, and sent them to prisons. Kristallnacht, better known as the “Night of Broken Glass”, was when Jews were forced out of their homes, and put into tragic ghettos. Ghettos were located in the Polish Frontier, and Jews were forced to reside here. Jews weren’t allowed to vote, leave the area around their ghetto because some signs read “No Jews Allowed”. “During World War II, Hitler and the Nazis implemented their so-called “Final Solution” what they referred to as the “Jewish problem,” and carried out the systematic murder of some 6 million European Jews in what came to be known as the Holocaust.”

On November 10, 1938 at 1:02 A.M. is when the Nazi’s chargered (Heydrich, 35). This night is called the Kristallnacht or the broken glass. “... business and apartments belonging to the Jews may be destroyed but not looted,” (Heydrich, 35). All Nazi officers burned down all the of the Jews businesses, homes, and their synagogues. Kristallnacht affected many Jewish lives from some aspects of their family, finance, and religion.

One of the most significant events that took place during the Holocaust was Kristallnacht; known as The Night of the Broken Glass for the shattered pieces of glass that littered the streets. On the night of November 9th, 1938, Nazi troops were ordered to disguise as ordinary civilians in order to give the impression that the perpetrators were angry members of the public. They outflanked Jewish neighborhoods, destroying homes, synagogues, shops, and businesses, encouraging ordinary Germans to participate in the breaking of glass by throwing Jewish possessions out of windows into streets. Many historians believe that night triggered the introduction of the Holocaust, as 91 Jews were killed in the attack and 30,000 arrested and incarcerated

Anti-semitism in Germany led by Adolf Hitler would back up a plan called the final solution, to exterminate all of the Jews in Europe. Out of the 100 million Jews aimed for extermination, 6 million of them were killed. On his path to German greatness, Jews became victim to inconceivable actions. First the Nuremberg Laws were passed which stripped Jews of their german citizenship, eliminating their opportunity to flee to other countries. After Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, Hitler forcefully deported Jewish people into fenced confinements called ghettos. More Jews died here than in any extermination camp due to the harsh conditions and labor. Most people living in ghettos had no access to running water or a sewage system and overcrowding

2). Even though this was not a violent treatment of the Jews, it was an attempt to bankrupt and dehumanize them of everything they had worked for their whole lives (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). As a result, Jews became a segregated people. They had to ride on buses and trains only in the seat that were clearly marked for them (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). Jewish children were allowed to be bullied at school in an attempt to keep them from coming to school. Hitler used this to brand the Jews as a lazy people (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). The Nuremberg Laws passed in 1935 gave even more power to the Nazis and took away more dignity of the Jews. The Jews were stripped of their German citizenship and marriages between Jews and non-Jews were not allowed (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). At this point, the Jews who could afford to pay a fine to leave the country were allowed to do so, but the ones who could not afford it had to stay behind and were not allowed to get food or medicine (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). Hitler’s campaign against the Jews escalated in 1938 with “Krystalnacht” – The Night of the Broken Glass (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). After a Nazi diplomat was found shot to death, Hitler began a seven day war of terror against the Jews (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). Shops that were owned by Jews were destroyed and robbed, homes and synagogues burned