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November 09, 2005
Night of Broken Glass
On this day in 1938, Nazis looted and burned synagogues as well as Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria in what became known as "Kristallnacht."
The term "Kristallnacht" ('Night of Broken Glass") refers to the organized anti-Jewish riots in Germany and Austria, November 9-10, 1938. These riots marked a major transition in Nazi policy, and were, in many ways, a harbinger of the "Final Solution."
Seventeen year old Herschel Grynszpan was living in Paris in the autumn of 1938 when his family in Hannover - father, mother, sister and brother - were among ten thousand Jews ruthlessly removed from their homes and deported to Poland in boxcars. His sister Berta managed to send a postcard to Herschel in Paris, describing the torments his family went through. Enraged by what he read, Herschel bought a pistol and went to the German Embassy in Paris on November 7, 1938, to take revenge and kill the ambassador, Count von Welczek. But the Third Secretary, Ernst vom Rath, was sent out to see what the young man wanted and Herschel shot him.
Herschel Grynszpan was arrested and in a poignant statement taken immediately after the arrest the young Jew told the police: "Being a Jew is not a crime. I am not a dog. I have a right to live and the Jewish people have a right to exist on this earth. Wherever I have been I have been chased like an animal." He declared that he had to avenge the Jews, to draw the attention of the world to what was happening in Germany.
For Adolf Hitler, the shooting in Paris provided an opportunity to incite Germans to "rise in bloody vengeance against the Jews." It supplied the pretext for massive Nazi pogroms launched against Jews in Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland - the orgy of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. The tide of anti-Semitism under Nazi rule was given impetus: in the next 24 hours Nazi storm troopers along with members of the SS and Hitler Youth beat and murdered Jews, broke into and wrecked Jewish homes, brutalized Jewish women and children, destroyed 265 synagogues, looted 7,500 Jewish businesses, smashed Jewish cemeteries, hospitals and schools. At least 96 Jews were killed and hundreds more injured, more than 1,000 synagogues were burned (and possibly as many as 2,000), almost 7,500 Jewish businesses were destroyed, cemeteries and schools were vandalized, and 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps.
The official German position on these events, was that they were spontaneous outbursts. The Fuehrer, Goebbels reported to Party officials in Munich, "has decided that such demonstrations are not to be prepared or organized by the party, but so far as they originate spontaneously, they are not to be discouraged either."
Kristallnacht was a crucial turning point in German policy regarding the Jews and may be considered as the actual beginning of what is now called the Holocaust.
There are important lessons to be drawn from Kristallnacht, for it served as a bridge experience for both Jews and Nazis. For the Jews, there was the terrifying realization that political antisemitism can lead to violence, even in Western Civilization. It also demonstrated that apathy can still pervade the world when the lives of Jews or other minorities are threatened.
For the Nazis, Kristallnacht taught that while the world might condemn their pogroms, it would not actively oppose them. World opinion, however, taught the Nazis the value of secrecy in the perpetration of future actions against Jews. Added to the complaints of Germans offended by the random violence of Kristallnacht, the stage was set for the "Final Solution"--the organized, bureaucratically efficient genocide of 6,000,000 men, women, and children.
In retrospect, Kristallnacht was more than the shattering of windows and illusions. It portended the physical destruction of European Jewry. As such, this commemoration must be observed both as a memorial and as a warning. -- Simon Wiesenthal Center
Posted by LindaSoG at November 9, 2005 06:34 AM
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Scooter Libby, SCOTUS, off year elections... Kristallnacht. History has a bad habit of slapping us with the hand of reality, doesn't it?... [Read More]
Tracked on November 10, 2005 03:35 AM
Comments
Most people think we're too smart to let something like that happen again.
It's worth noting that before 9/11, Saddam Hussein was paying the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, in an attempt to encourage more terror attacks against Israel.
There should have been more outrage about that.
Posted by: Ferdy ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.lindasog.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at November 9, 2005 09:16 AM
Thank you bringing it up Linda.
We must remember all these lessons from the past.
Posted by: Felis at November 9, 2005 06:41 PM
Hey linda,
Great article, Just found your site courtesy of the french terror alert icon. Not to downgrade the severity and utter horror of kristelenacht. But in my eyes watching the shul's in gush katif burn, That hurt more. Watching as soldiers dragging out my friends and neighbors from their homes... smoke filling the ear, crying and weeping. tearing kriya...soldiers in black uniforms bashing down the doors... oh i'm sure you saw this on the news but they don't show you the heavy stuff... watching as my 5 year old neighbor david begging the soldiers for mercy, crying and pleading with them not to hurt his father.... i watched this. i watched as the kasam missile, the mortars and katayushka rockets were brought out and paraded to the troops... and then i went to the shul where we prayed, i watched as the army broke the door down and rushed in, beating and hitting me and my friends inside the shul. i watched through teary eyes as i was brutally dragged out and beaten with a torah scroll in my arms no less!!
all this just 3 days after i sat on that very same stone floor and weeped over the destruction of jerusalem, 3 days later my shirt torn i weeped over the destruction of gush katif by my fellow brothers... the physical pain did not bother me, the clubs and rifle butts did not touch my soul, the hand cuffs and jail cells did not lock in my spirit... watching the shul's burn broke me and tore me to pieces... my rabbi who is a survivor of bergen belsen tells me this is how they felt in europe. their houses and possessions did not dent them. watching the torah scrolls burn is what shattered them.
p.s. while my blog contains a lot of what happend in gush katif, Even 3 monthes later i cant get myself to fully write down my feelings. as my rabbi who survived bergen belsen calls us "the survivors of gush katif destruction"
Posted by: elchonon at November 9, 2005 07:09 PM
Elchonon, I believe I was writing you even as you were making this post on my site, having already found your site due to your posting of the french terror alert link.
Bashert.
Thank you for sharing a bit of what you went through, I have heard many similar horror stories from the Gush, and I know how difficult it is to express such things.
Sadly, what happened in Gush Katif proves that we have learned no lessons from what happened in Nazi Germany.
Posted by: LindaSoG at November 9, 2005 07:53 PM
Some lessons have to be learned the hard way, and with more than one lesson.
Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at November 10, 2005 10:31 AM
shame i'm only 20 huh ? lol
Posted by: elchonon at November 10, 2005 04:39 PM