Kristallnacht (redirected from Crystal night)

Kristallnacht (krĭs'täl-näkht) [Ger.,=night of crystal], in German history, the night of Nov. 9, 1938, a night of violence against Jews and of destruction of the businesses and other property belonging to them. The name is a reference to the broken glass that resulted from the destruction. Using the pretext of the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris, Goebbels urged Storm Troopers to stage violent reprisals. A night of rampages by Storm Troopers, the SS, and the Hitler Youth resulted in 91 Jewish dead, hundreds injured, and 7,500 businesses and 177 synagogues gutted.

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Kristallnacht

 or Crystal Night or Night of Broken Glass

Night of violence against Jews, carried out by members of the German Nazi Party on Nov. 9–10, 1938, so called because of the broken glass left in its aftermath. The violence, instigated by Joseph Goebbels, left 91 Jews dead and hundreds seriously injured. About 7,500 Jewish businesses were gutted and some 1,000 synagogues burned or damaged. The Gestapo arrested 30,000 Jewish males, offering to release them only if they emigrated and surrendered their wealth. The incident marked a major escalation in the Nazi program of Jewish persecution, foreshadowing the Holocaust.

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Kristallnacht

destruction of Jews’ property anticipated later atrocities (November 9–10, 1938). [Ger. Hist.: Hitler, 689–694]

See : Anti-Semitism

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Kristallnacht (Crystal Night)

November 9-10

A 17-year-old Jew named Herschel Grynszpan assassinated the third secretary at the German embassy in Paris on November 7, 1938, to avenge the expulsion of his parents and 15,000 other Polish Jews to German concentration camps. His act gave the German Nazis the excuse they had been looking for to conduct a pogrom, or "organized massacre." Crystal Night, or Night of the Broken Glass, gets its name from the shattered glass that littered the streets two nights later, when the windows of Jewish-owned shops and homes were systematically smashed throughout Leipzig and other German and Austrian cities in a frenzy of destruction that resulted in the arrest and deportation of about 30,000 Jews.
Crystal Night marked the beginning of the Nazis' plan to rob the Jews of their possessions and to force them out of their homes and neighborhoods. Although the so-called "Final Solution" (to kill all European Jews) had not been publicly suggested at this point, the Nazis' actions on this night left little doubt as to what the fate of German Jews would be if war broke out. Today Jews everywhere observe the anniversary of this infamous event by holding special memorial services.
In Germany, Kristallnacht coincides with the anniversary of another famous, if very recent, event: the breaching of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The coincidence of the two observances is seen by many as symbolic of the conflicts of German history.

CONTACTS:
Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance
Multimedia Learning Center Online
9760 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90035
800-900-9036 or 310-553-9036; fax: 310-553-4521
motlc.wiesenthal.org
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
100 Raoul Wallenberg Pl. S.W.
Washington, DC 20024
202-488-0400
www.ushmm.org

SOURCES:
AnnivHol-2000, p. 188
DictWrldRel-1989, p. 202
HolSymbols-2009, p. 453

Celebration days: Nov 9; Nov 10