Kristallnacht

By A. Fedeski (FSWC Educator)

On November 9–10, 1938, the Nazi regime orchestrated violent attacks targeting Jewish communities across Germany and Austria. The mass pogrom was presented by the Nazis as a spontaneous response to the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris by a Jewish teenager, but was in fact organized by the regime itself. During Kristallnacht, or the "Night of Broken Glass," the Nazis destroyed more than 1,400 synagogues, looted thousands of Jewish-owned businesses, and arrested around 30,000 Jewish men, sending them to concentration camps. At least 90 Jews were murdered during the attacks, and countless homes were vandalized. The event marked a major escalation in Nazi antisemitism, as legal discrimination and social exclusion shifted to state-sanctioned violence. In the months following the attacks, thousands of Jews across Germany and Austria sought to leave the country to escape the escalating persecution. Today, many argue that the term "Kristallnacht", which comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets in the aftermath of the attacks, fails to capture the full horror of the events, during which people - not just property - were targeted because they were Jews, and which took place not only at night but also in broad daylight. Today, some historians prefer to use the term “November pogroms.”