| The Holocaust (Phases) |
| Early elements |
|---|
| Racial policy · Euthanasia Concentration camps (List) |
| Jews |
| Nazi Germany, 1933 to 1939 |
| Pogroms: Kristallnacht · Iasi pogrom Jedwabne pogrom · Lviv pogrom... |
| Ghettos: Warsaw, Lodz Krakow, Theresienstadt... |
| Einsatzgruppen: Babi Yar, Rumbula Paneriai, Odessa massacre... |
| Final Solution: Wannsee Conference Aktion Reinhard |
| Death camps: Chelmno, Belzec Sobibor, Treblinka, Auschwitz |
| Resistance: ZOB · ZZW Ghetto uprising (Warsaw) |
| End of war: Death marches Berihah· DP Camp |
| Other Victims |
| Slavs and Poles, (A-B Aktion) · Romany German dissidents · Communists Gay men · Jehovah's Witnesses |
| Responsible parties |
| Nazi Germany: Hitler · Eichmann Himmler · SS · Gestapo |
| Collaborators: Romania · I.S. Croatia Hungary · Vichy France · Slovakia Italy· Ukrainian/Latvian/Lithuanian units |
| Functionalism vs intentionalism Nuremberg Trials · Other trials |
| Survivors, Victims, and Rescuers |
| Famous survivors · Rescuers Famous victims |
Die Kristallnacht, also known as die Reichskristallnacht (literally Imperial Crystal Night), die Pogromnacht and in English as the Night of Broken Glass, was a massive nationwide Pogrom in Germany and Austria on the night of November 9, 1938 (including early hours of the following day). It was directed at Jewish citizens throughout the country and was one of the early events of the The Holocaust.
Dr. Walter H. Pehle, a historian specializing in modern Germany, has argued that the direct translation should be unacceptable because its original intent was cynically propagandizing the violence into something metaphorically holding "sparkle and gleam" for Germany. In the term die Reichskristallnacht, the prefix "Reichs-" means "Imperial". Both forms of that word were heavily used in German-government propaganda during the Nazi period. The English term "The Night of Broken Glass" is often explained as avoiding the ironic intent of die Kristallnacht..
A second origin of the term Kristallnacht is not the Nazi propaganda, but rather that is based on the conversation of the ordinary people, especially in Berlin. Aware of the fact that much more serious crimes than breaking windows were committed, the euphemistic term was coined because people were fearing repression by the Nazi state apparatus for calling the pogrom a pogrom. Many people also saw that the November pogroms were not an outbreak of "spontaneous wrath of the German people" as the Nazi propaganda tried to portray it, but a state-organized and executed act of terror. This explains the prefix Reichs- (imperial), that people used also in other contexts to ridicule and criticize aspects of the Nazi dictatorship (e.g. Reichswasserleiche - "Imperial Drowned Body" for actress Kristina Söderbaum). The meaning of (Reichs-)Kristallnacht as a term critizing and accusing the Nazi dictatorship for what took place has largely been forgotten.
Today in official German sources it is mostly called Pogromnacht ("Pogrom night"), reflecting the fear that "Kristallnacht" was too euphemistic given the fact that the original dimension of the term has been lost. Many other Germans refuse to call it that way; the perversity, obscenity and uniqueness of the Reichskristallnacht was only described in the proper name "Kristallnacht", and "Pogromnacht" itself was an euphemism.
The Polish government refused to admit them, resulting in their trudging between the German and Polish border posts in the cold day and night, until German authorities finally persuaded the Polish government to grant entry.
Herschel Grynszpan, a German Jew who had fled to France, had received a letter from his family describing the horrible conditions they experienced in this deportation. Seeking to alleviate their situation, he appealed repeatedly over the next few days to Ernst vom Rath, Third Secretary of the German Embassy in Paris, who apparently had no intention of being helpful.
On Monday, November 7, Grynszpan shot vom Rath in the stomach. He attempted and missed 3 additional shots. Two days later, on November 9, the secretary died.
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This pogrom damaged, and in many cases destroyed, about 1574 synagogues (constituting nearly all Germany had), many Jewish cemeteries, more than 7,000 Jewish shops, and 29 department stores. Some Jews were beaten to death with others forced to watch.
More than 30,000 Jewish males were arrested and taken to concentration camps; primarily Dachau, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen. The treatment at the camps was brutal, but most were released during the following three months on the condition that they leave Germany.
The number of German Jews killed is uncertain, with estimates ranging from 36 to about 200 over two days of rioting. The number killed in the rioting is most often cited as 91. Counting deaths at the concentration camps, around 2,000-2,500 deaths, were directly or indirectly attributable to the Kristallnacht pogrom. A few non-Jewish Germans mistaken for Jews were also killed in Kristallnacht.
The events in Austria were no less horrendous, and most of Vienna's 94 synagogues and prayer-houses were partially or totally damaged. People were subjected to all manner of humiliations, including being forced to scrub the pavements whilst being tormented by their fellow Austrians, some of whom had been their friends and neighbours.
The top Nazi official Hermann Göring met with other members of the Nazi leadership on November 12th to plan the next steps after the riot, setting the stage for formal government action that would soon lead to the Holocaust. In the transcript of the meeting Göring said,
I have received a letter written on the Führer's orders requesting that the Jewish question be now, once and for all, coordinated and solved one way or another... 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. [:Kristallnacht}}#endnote_Conot]
The night ushered in a new phase in the anti-Semitic activities of the Nazi party and state apparatuses, leading to the deportation and, finally, the mass murder of most of the Jewish people living in Germany. Although few people knew it at the time, the Kristallnacht pogrom was a first step in the systematic persecution and mass murder of Jews throughout Europe in what came to be known as The Holocaust.
Avantgarde Guitarist Gary Lucas's 1988 composition "Verklarte Kristallnacht", which juxtaposes the Israeli national anthem, "Hatikvah" with phrases from "Deutschland Über Alles" amid wild electronic shrieks and noise, is intended to be a sonic representation of the horrors of Kristallnacht. It debuted at the 1988 Berlin Jazz Festival and received rave reviews. (The title is a reference to Arnold Schoenberg's 1899 work "Verklärte Nacht" that presaged his pioneering work on atonal music; Schoenberg was an Austrian Jew exiled by the Nazis). This composition heavily influenced John Zorn's 1993 Concept album Kristallnacht, which used much the same concept and techniques as Lucas.