Transcript Kristallnacht November 9-10, 1938 … more than just broken glass Introductory Video Birmingham Holocaust Education Center March 2012

Kristallnacht
November 9-10, 1938
… more than just broken glass
Introductory Video
Birmingham Holocaust Education Center
March 2012
The Term
The term Kristallnacht, “Night of the Broken Glass,” recalls
only the violence committed against PROPERTY.
The event would be better termed “November Pogrom” (a
Russian word meaning “to wreak havoc or to demolish
violently), which more accurately characterizes the violence
committed against PEOPLE.
1. The events of Kristallnacht were NOT a spontaneous
mass uprising of the German people.
•
The antisemitic violence that erupted on Kristallnacht would not have
been possible without the systematic social isolation that had
previously occurred.
•
Kristallnacht should be seen more as a culmination of a brutal
trajectory and less as the dramatic rupture that is usually depicted.
2. The events of Kristallnacht were NOT a carefully
executed operation that had been planned in advance.
The decision to initiate the pogrom was only made on the evening of
November 9, and the ensuing action was a massive improvisation.
3. The explanation for the destructiveness lies not in
advance preparation, but in the readiness of tens of
thousands of Germans to commit violence against
their Jewish neighbors.
Events Leading up to Kristallnacht
In January 1933 there were some
523,000 Jews in Germany (less than 1%
population). Hitler was frustrated ... by
late 1938, almost six full years of Nazi
rule, and less than 1/2 of the German
Jews had emigrated from the Reich. He
was determined to complete the "deJewification" of German society before
the outbreak of the next war.
169,000 / 523,000
The German economy would have to be prepared for an
extended period of armed conflict. Funding was explicitly
linked to an acceleration of the "Aryanization" (transfer of
Jewish to German ownership) of Jewish wealth and intensified
measures to compel the Jews to leave Germany.
A formerly Jewish-owned store (Gummi Weil) expropriated and transferred to
non-Jewish ownership (Stamm and Bassermann). Frankfurt, Germany, 1938.
Violence Prior to Kristallnacht
Violence occurred only weeks after Hitler's appointment as Chancellor.
The emergency powers granted to the Hitler government by the
Reichstag Fire Decree of February 28, 1933 enabled the Nazis to
unleash the SA against their real and perceived enemies. The
Storm Troopers arrested thousands of Communists and others
whom they considered threats to the new order, constructing
makeshift concentration camps to house their prisoners. The
feeling of empowerment that these operations engendered led
to other excesses, including attacks on Jews and their
businesses.
Communists arrested after Reichstag Fire.
Later attacks began as demonstrations in front of Jewish
businesses, where Storm Troopers and other party activists
called for boycotts and intimidated customers. Confrontations
with customers and shopkeepers then often escalated into
beatings and vandalism. SA men and others terrorized Jews on
the street and forcibly entered their homes.
Israel's Department Store, Berlin, April 1, 1933.
SA are holding placards that say:
"Germans defend yourselves! Don't buy from Jews.”
Deportation of Polish Jews
October 27, 1938
For some time, the German government had been pursuing
a policy of expelling Jews who were Polish nationals, even
though they had been residents in Germany for a number
of years — in many cases, even born in Germany.
In October, the government in Warsaw had decided to put
a halt to this by stripping these Jews of their Polish
citizenship. This move prompted the Gestapo to initiate a
massive deportation.
On October 27, 1938, the Nazi regime ordered the roundup of about 50,000 Jews of Polish nationality
who were living in Germany at the time, the vast majority of whom had either arrived before 1933 or
been born to parents who had themselves immigrated to Germany.
The operation lasted for 3 days and affected approximately 18,000 Jews, who were taken from their
homes with virtually no advance notice, crowded into sealed trains, and transported to the GermanPolish border. Once shoved across the border by the Germans, the Jews were refused entry into
Poland. They were compelled to live in the no-man's-land between the two countries, subject to the
elements and with little food. In Zbaszyn, the Jews were left for days in the pouring rain until they
were finally interned in a Polish camp.
The Grynszpan Family
Among the deported Jews were Sendel and Rifka
Grynszpan, along with two of their three children.
The Grynszpan family had lived in Hannover since
just after WWI. Their son, Herschel, had been born
in Hannover in 1921 and moved to Paris in 1936.
At the end of October, Herschel received the terrible
news about his family. A postcard from his sister
described the cruelty with which the family had been
expelled.
Jews with Polish citizenship being deported
from Germany to Zbaszyn.
Members of Herschel Grynszpan's family
from Radomsko (Poland).
Expelled Jews wait outside with their luggage in an
open area near the train station in Zbaszyn.
Shooting of Ernst vom Rath
November 7, 1938
These family circumstances drove Herschel Grynszpan to his act of
desperation
At 9:35 am on Monday, November 7, 1938, Grynszpan presented himself to
the receptionist at the German Embassy in Paris, a pistol concealed in his
pocket. A few minutes later, Grynszpan shot Ernst vom Rath, a 29-yer-old
junior diplomat. Grynszpan did not resist when arrested by the French
police.
Upon his arrest, Grynszpan maintained that his action had been motivated
by outrage over the German treatment of his family and his people. "I
acted," he told interrogators, "because of love for my parents and for my
people, who were subjected unjustly to outrageous treatment." He added:
"It is not, after all, a crime to be Jewish. I am not a dog. I have a right to
live. My people have a right to exist on this earth.“
Ernst vom Rath
The shooting was reported on German radio later that same day. Before
nightfall on November 7, anti-Jewish riots erupted in several locations
around Germany.
Herschel Grynspan
Riots Erupt: November 7, 1938
The attacks were organized, but on the spur of the moment. While instigated by the Nazi Party, it
attracted a significant number of non-party members. The vandalism of property was accompanied
by physical abuse of Jews, which often came in the form of personal humiliation.
Johannes L was a representative of the spontaneous joiners-in:
Johannes was a 53-year-old railroad conductor. He was not a member of the SA or any
other Nazi Party organization. He and his wife and daughter were already in bed on the
night of November 7 when they were awakened by the noise of the rioters. They dressed,
went outside, and joined the mob. Johannes became part of a group that invaded several
Jewish homes. He was present in the home of the Jewish couple Herr and Frau K. when
one of the rioters poured the contents of a night pot over Herr K.'s head. During the night,
Johannes returned to his home several times, repeatedly trying to persuade his neighbors,
Herr and Frau B. to come outside and participate in the action. Aside from Johannes,
three additional defendants at the 1946 trial were accused of having joined in the violence
spontaneously.
These early riots demonstrated just how easy it would be to mobilize popular antisemitism on short
notice, and how vulnerable Germany's Jews would be in the face of a pogrom.
The Nazi Spin
The shooting offered the Nazis a welcome pretext for
intensifying the persecution of Germany's Jews. Nazi
propaganda wasted no time trying to depict the shooting as the
product of a Jewish, anti-German conspiracy.
Even though vom Rath had been a fairly low-ranking member of
the German diplomatic corps, an effort was made to shape him
into a figure of considerable significance. Hitler even dispatched
his personal physician, Karl Brandt, together with the head of
surgery at the University Hospital in Munich, to care for vom
Rath. To further drive the point, Hitler promoted vom Rath from
his relatively low rank of Legationssekretär to the more senior
position of Gesandtschaftsrat First Class on November 9.
The message was unambiguous: international Jewry had
conspired to have Ernst vom Rath killed to intimidate Germany
and to sabotage any chance for a re-establishment of FrenchGerman relations.
Nazi propaganda often portrayed
Jews as engaged in a conspiracy to
provoke war. Here, a stereotyped
Jew conspires behind the scenes to
control the Allied powers,
represented by the British,
American, and Soviet flags. The
caption reads, "Behind the enemy
powers: the Jew." Circa 1942.
Eve of Nazi Commemoration
of Beer Hall Putsch
November 8, 1938
Every year on November 8, the eve of the annual
Nazi commemoration of the Beer Hall Putsch
(November 9, 1923), Adolf Hitler delivered a major
speech in the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich, the site of
the Putsch attempt. On this evening in 1938, Hitler
did not refer to the Paris shooting.
Hitler speaking to his Old Fighters in the
Bürgerbräukeller, Munich.
Despite all the press, there had been only one
concrete governmental action. On November 8, the
police commissioner of Berlin had issued an order
requiring the Jews of the city to surrender their
firearms to the police. A considerable number of
Jewish homes in Germany did contain weapons, but
these were overwhelmingly daggers, sabers, and
pistols that Jewish men had kept as mementos from
the military serve in World War I.
The notion that Jews needed to be disarmed
because they constituted some sort of physical
threat was preposterous.
Nazi Commemoration
of Beer Hall Putsch / Munich
November 9, 1938
The annual commemoration consisted of a
series of highly ritualized ceremonies. They
were designed to retrace the route of Hitler's
movements fifteen years earlier, to honor the
Nazi martyrs who fell during the Putsch, and to
celebrate the victory of the Nazi movement
over its adversaries.
At noon each year, party comrades
march together to the Feldherrenhalle
in Munich, site of the Putsch.
In Nazi historical memory, the Jews had been
among those chiefly responsible for Germany's
defeat in World War I, for the Treaty of
Versailles, and for the despised Weimar
Republic - the very offenses that Nazis believed
provoked the Putsch in 1923.
Ernst Vom Rath Dies
5:30 p.m. - November 9
Vom Rath died from his injuries late in the
afternoon on November 9. He now became the
newest martyr for the Nazi cause. So on this
day, specifically devoted to the memory of Nazi
suffering at Jewish hands, the antisemitic
violence that was about to erupt would serve as
a ritualized act of collective vengeance.
Hitler's physician telegraphed the Reich
Chancellory about the death at 5:45 - he
possibly called Hitler directly, too. It was
transmitted by the press at 6:15 pm.
Herschel Grynszpan as the crucifier
of Ernst vom Rath.
From “Der Stürmer”
Hitler Leaves Old Town Hall Early
Evening, November 9
By the time Hitler left his apartment to attend the "comradely evening" in the Old
Town Hall around 7:00 pm, Vom Rath's death was widely known in Germany.
Hitler would have normally remained at the Old Town Hall late into the evening,
with his comrades.
His premature departure reflected a desire to distance himself from the violence
that he had just authorized in his conversation with Goebbels. It was important for
him to be shielded from a direct connection with actions that were clearly
considered criminal under German law.
Hitler's only public contribution to the discourse about Vom Rath’s death was a
terse, two-line condolence telegram sent to the bereaved parents of the murdered
diplomat.
Goebbels Addresses Nazi Officials
9:30-10:00 p.m. - November 9
Once Hitler left, Goebbels stood up to address the assembled officials, including gauleiter
as well as high-ranking officials from the SA, SS, and Hitler Youth. No verbatim transcript
of Goebbels's remarks exists. His written instructions were transmitted later that evening.
• Jewish businesses were to be destroyed & synagogues set ablaze.
• The police were not to interfere, and fire departments were to
intervene only to protect "Aryan" property.
• Looting was to be prevented.
(For the antisemitic violence to be perceived as an expression of
outrage by honorable Germans, it was important to avoid the
appearance that the rioters were motivated by petty greed.)
• Weapons were to be confiscated from Jews.
Joseph Goebbels
The meaning of this message was immediately clear to the gauleiters and SA leaders
present. While still at the Old Town Hall, they went to the phones, issuing instructions to
their subordinate offices. Local officials determined the form/intensity of the violence.
In his diary, Joseph Goebbels describes the scene that
played itself out in the Old Town Hall during the festivities:
I go to the party reception in the Old Town
Hall. A gigantic event. I describe the
situation to the Führer. He decides: let the
demonstrations continue. Withdraw the
police. For once the Jews should feel the
rage of the people. This is correct. I issue
corresponding instructions to the police and
the party. Then I speak briefly to the
officials of the party. A storm of applause.
They all rush to the telephones. Now the
people shall act.
11:30 pm
Himmler Notified of Events
Heinrich Himmler was not informed about the events until
11:30 pm at Hitler's apartment. From there the two men
planned to go to Odeonsplatz, where the solemn swearingin ceremony for new SS recruits was scheduled to take
place at midnight.
Himmler alleged that Goebbels, “in his hunger for power
and blockheaded stupidity,” had launched the whole action
on his own, to the surprise of all. Had he known about
them earlier or even been implicated in their planning, it is
certain the Gestapo would not have been informed so late,
at a point when the violence was already raging.
While still at Hitler's residence, Himmler sent instructions
to the Gestapo Chief Mueller in Berlin as to what the SS
and Gestapo should do. While it was impressed upon the
SS that they should not participate in the violence, the
Gestapo was given orders to arrest “especially wealthy”
Jews and to place them in concentration camps.
Annual midnight swearing-in of SS recruits,
November 7, 1935.
Telex to Gestapo Offices – 11:55 pm,
November 9
Heinrich Muller, Gestapo Chief
‘Actions' against Jews would take place shortly, especially targeting synagogues:
1. The Gestapo should seize "important archival materials" from synagogues.
2. The Gestapo should prepare for "the arrest of 20-30,000 Jews throughout the Reich.
Due to limited “detention space,” Heidrich (head of Reich Security Main Office) later
specified that these Jews should be:
• Propertied or affluent.
• Healthy male Jews of not too advanced age.
• The arrested Jews were “not to be maltreated.”
Heidrich envisioned that the German police (under him) would carry out their
responsibilities in an efficient and professional manner, and the SA would be entrusted
with the more primitive task of vandalism. This did not happen. Many of the Jews
arrested were not affluent or young and healthy, and camps were overcrowded.
3. The Gestapo should take "severe measures" against Jews found with weapons.
Telex to Offices of Security Services
1:20 am, November 10
Reinhard Heydrich, Chief of Security Police and SD
SECRET!
To all Headquarters and Stations of the State Police
To all Districts and Sub-districts of the Security Service (SD).
Urgent! Submit immediately to the Chief or his deputy!
Re: Measures against the Jews tonight.
Because of the assassination of Legation Secretary vom Rath in Paris, demonstrations
throughout the Reich are to be expected tonight -- November 9 - 10, 1938. The following
orders are issued for dealing with these occurrences.
Continue
1) Upon receipt of this telegram, the chiefs of the political police [Gestapo] stations or their deputies
must immediately contact the appropriate political authorities for their district [the local Nazi
Party leaders]... by telephone to arrange a discussion about the conduct of the demonstrations.
This discussion should include the competent Inspector or Commander of the Order Police....
[The local] political authorities are to be informed that the German police have received from the
Reichsfuehrer SS and the Chief of the German police the following orders to which the actions of the
political authorities should be correspondingly adjusted:
a) Only such actions may be carried out which do not threaten German lives or property
(e.g., burning of synagogues only when there is no threat of fire to the surroundings).
b) Stores and residences of Jews may only be destroyed but not looted. The police are
instructed to supervise compliance with this order and to arrest looters.
c) Special care is to be taken on commercial streets that non-Jewish businesses are
completely secured against damage.
d) Foreign citizens, even if they are Jewish, may not be molested.
2) ... demonstrations in progress should not be prevented by the police but only supervised for
compliance with the guidelines.
3) ... existing archival material is to be impounded by the police in all synagogues and offices of the
Jewish community centers to prevent its destruction in the course of the demonstrations.... [This
material] is to be turned over to the... offices of the SD.
Continue
4) The direction of Security Police [both political and criminal divisions] operations relating to the antiJewish demonstrations resides with Political Police authorities except when orders are issued by Security
Police inspectors. Officials from the Criminal Police as well as members of the Security Service (SD), of
the SS para-military units, and of the general SS may be called upon to carry out Security Police
operations.
5) As soon as the course of events during this night allows the assigned police officers to be used for this
purpose, as many Jews -- particularly affluent Jews -- are to be arrested in all districts as can be
accommodated in existing detention facilities. For the time being, only healthy male Jews, whose age is
not too advanced, are to be arrested. Immediately after the arrests have been carried out, the
appropriate concentration camps should be contacted to place the Jews into camps as quickly as
possible. Special care should be taken that Jews arrested on the basis of this instruction are not
mistreated.
6) The contents of this order are to be passed on to the competent Inspectors and Commanders of the
Order Police and to regional and local sectors of the SD....
The chief of the Order Police has issued the corresponding instructions to the Order Police including the
fire brigades. Close coordination is to be maintained between the Security Police and the Order Police
during the implementation of the ordered actions…
Telex – 1:40 am, November 10
Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda
Goebbels’ written instructions (no copy survived) were not telexed to the regional
party offices until 1:40 am. By this time, the verbal instructions had been transmitted
over the phone throughout much of the country, and the pogrom was already well
under way.
There is no evidence of advanced knowledge within the German police - their orders
did not go out until 6:30 am the following morning. They were ordered to stand aside
during the destruction, and to carry out the mass arrest of tens of thousands of Jews.
CONCLUSION:
Hitler and Goebbels had not decided upon the nationwide pogrom earlier
than the night of November 9. If they had, some kind of written instruction
would probably have been prepared in advance for distribution.
Hermann Goering, already on his way back to Berlin, was cut out of the loop
completely. In his capacity as head of the Four-Year-Plan (economic plan for
the Reich), he was later concerned about the wanton destruction of property
and worried about the diplomatic consequences of the pogrom.
The Perpetrators,
SA or Storm Troopers
On the evening of November 9, Storm Troopers throughout Germany engaged in rowdy
drinking as part of the annual observance of the Beer Hall Putsch. Directives to mobilize
for the anti-Jewish action often arrived in the middle of these celebrations. Thus it was
not merely the institutionalized antisemitism of the SA that explains the readiness of
the Storm Troopers to behave barbarically, but also its deeply rooted masculine culture
of beer-hall hooliganism.
The keyed-up and drunken state of some
Storm Troopers helps explain why in
certain instances the violence intensified
beyond the bound stipulated by the Nazi
leadership, reaching the level of murder,
rape, and widespread theft of Jewish
property It should be emphasized,
however, that most of the crimes
perpetrated were committed by men who
were not acting under the influence of
alcohol.
Additional Perpetrators
The circle of perpetrators widened considerably as the pogrom unfolded.
The Youth
November 10 was to be a normal school/work day. As the day progressed, a
significant number of German youths engaged in physical attacks on Jews and
their property. Often they had been mobilized by local officials of the Hitler
Youth or by their schools. Classes of schoolchildren were marched from their
schools and set loose on Jewish targets, encouraged by their teachers. But in
many instances, they acted spontaneously, goaded on by their friends, their
parents, and other adults. The youths at times proved capable of behaving
with a brutality on par with that of the older Storm Troopers.
The Bystanders
Postwar trial testimony suggests that many of the onlookers were far from
passive. Through laughter, applause, heckling, and chanting, they expressed
their approval of what they were witnessing, in the process providing
psychological support for those who were physically engaged in the attacks.
Many of the onlookers served as the appreciated audience. Moreover, many
onlookers ultimately joined the mob and participated directly in the brutality.
Cover of Book,
Kristallnacht 1938, by Alan E.
Steinweis
The Looters
Thousands of Germans who had not participated in the actual vandalism of
Jewish homes and businesses did not hesitate to help themselves to the spoils.
A large percentage of the looters were women.
7,500 Businesses were Destroyed
or Vandalized
Austrian police stand guard in front of a Jewishowned business destroyed during Kristallnacht.
Vienna, Austria.
Nazi vandalized Jewish shop.
267 Synagogues Were Torched;
76 Were Destroyed Completely
Kristallnacht was particularly brutal
in Vienna. Members of the Nazi
party and its various paramilitary
organizations (including the SA and
the SS) were joined by civilians,
emboldened by the lack of police
interventions, to form
"spontaneous" mobs that torched
most of the city's synagogues and
small prayerhouses.
Local residents watch the burning of the ceremonial hall
at the Jewish cemetery in Graz during Kristallnacht.
Graz, Austria, November 9-10, 1938.
Many of these burned to shells as
the public and fire department
personnel looked on, intervening
only when the blaze threatened
neighboring buildings.
Burning of the Augustenstrasse Synagogue in
Rostock the morning after Kristallnacht.
Photo taken by Friedrich Best, a non-Jewish
teenager who lived near the synagogue
German children watch as a synagogue
burns in Kuppenheim, Germany,
November 10, 1938.
The Great Synagogue,
Essen, Germany
Children are among those residents of the
city of Bamberg who look on as the local
synagogue burns on the morning after
Kristallnacht.
The town of Zeven, Germany had 2,500 inhabitants in 1938, 28 of them Jews.
On November 10, 1938, under Gestapo orders, the synagogue in Zeven was
forcibly emptied and the furnishings publicly burned at the town's main square.
German children, behind an SS man, watch the event.
The damaged lintel above a Torah ark from a synagogue that was
destroyed during Kristallnacht. Nentershausen, Germany, 1938.
The partially damaged Hebrew verse on the lintel reads:
"Know before whom you stand".
Destruction of Kaufhaus N. Israel
In 1815, Israel’s Department Store (German: Kaufhaus Nathan Israel) was
the first Jewish-owned shop in Berlin. Over the years, the main shopping
district had moved. All of the better stores followed the shopping district,
but Israel’s had stayed because the owners thought that their store was
still the center of attention. The store was boycotted by the German
government when the Nazi Party came to power in 1933 and in 1938, it
was one of the many Jewish owned stores that was attacked.
On November 9, a Nazi warned Israel’s not to open the next day. They
ignored him and opened up anyway. For some reason, there was a group
of policemen outside of Israel’s not letting anybody destroy anything.
Israel’s was believed to be the only Jewish owned shop in Berlin with a
police guard. By 2:00 p.m. the police had mysteriously left their post.
Shortly after, a group of men armed with clubs and iron bars pushed the doormen away and entered the
store. Some Nazis in uniform followed them, and then the destruction began. The Nazis tried to capture
as many Jewish workers as possible during the destruction. The mob wrecked display cases, threw
furniture, tore down silk from stands, and ran, stomped, and jumped on clothes. They tossed typewriters
and other equipment out of the windows of the offices on the top floors. When the mob left, the police
reappeared, but they didn’t try to arrest anyone or fix anything. All they did was keep people away from
the broken glass so that they would not injure themselves.
Dilemma of Police & Firemen
Sworn to uphold the law and keep the community safe, these
civil servants received explicit orders to refrain from doing
their jobs.
Throughout the events, most German policemen did exactly
as they had been ordered, which was to stand by and do
nothing. The same held true for firemen, though some of
them were called into action only when the flames from a
burning synagogue threatened surrounding structures. In at
least one case, in Heldenbergen, firemen were called in to
dismantle a synagogue because a fire would have been too
dangerous.
The passivity of the police remained one of the most
powerful memories of Jews who lived through the pogrom:
Richard S. of Innsbruck was astonished at the failures of the
local police. As SA men began to invade his home at about
3:00 am, he notified the police station on the telephone. The
operator asked whether a Jewish home was involved. When
Richard S. answered "yes," the operator replied, "Yes, we
know," apologized, and hung up, leaving Richard S. at the
mercy of his attackers.
The burning of the synagogue in Ober
Ramstadt during Kristallnacht. The local firedepartment prevented the fire from spreading
to a nearby home, but made no attempt to
intervene in the synagogue fire.
Trudy Isenberg Collection, USHMM Archives
Eyewitness Account
Firefighter in Laupheim, Germany
The alarm went off between 5-5:30 A.M., and as usual, I jumped on my bicycle towards the firehouse. I had a strange
feeling when I got there and saw many people standing in front of it. I was not allowed to go into the firehouse to take
the engines out, or even to open the doors. One of my friends, who lived next to the Synagogue, whispered to me, "Be
quiet - the Synagogue is burning; I was beaten up already when I wanted to put out the fire.“
Eventually we were allowed to take the fire engines out, but only very slowly. We were ordered not to use any water till
the whole synagogue was burned down. Many of us did not like to do that, but we had to be careful not to voice our
opinions, because "the enemy is listening.“
Only after one of the party members was worried that his house was going to catch fire, were we allowed to use water.
But, even then, we just had to stand and watch until the House of Prayers was reduced to rubble and ashes.
In the meantime, the marshalls rounded up the Jews and dragged them in front of the Synagogue, where they had to
kneel down and put their hands above their heads. I saw with my own eyes how one old Jew was dragged down and
pushed to his knees. Then the arsonists came in their brown uniforms to admire the results of their destruction.
....Everyone seemed rather quiet and subdued... We had to stand watch at the Synagogue to make sure there were no
more smoldering sparks. My turn was from 10-11 and 2-3 P.M. The brown uniforms paraded around to admire their
work.
As I was watching the destroyed Synagogue and the frail old Jews, I wondered whose turn would be next!... When
would it be our turn? Will the same thing happen to our Protestant and Catholic Churches!
An Act of Resistance
One of the most striking actions on Kristallnacht was that taken by police Lieutenant Wilhelm
Krützfeld, the commander of a police precinct in Berlin. Within his precinct lay the largest
synagogue of the country, the beautiful New Synagogue. The New Synagogue had been built
in the 1880s in the Moorish style. For its splendor, Kaiser Wilhelm I had granted it protection
under the law.
In the early hours of November 10, 1938, Nazi hooligans prepared to set
the Oranienburger Strasse synagogue on fire. Shortly after the flames
started devouring the synagogue's vestibule, Krützfeld and some of his men
showed up. His pistol in one hand and the Kaiser's grant in the other, he
demanded that the SA leave the building. They did. He then called the fire
department and demanded that they put out the fire. They did.
The next day, the President of the Berlin police, Graf von Helldorf, a
member of the SA, summoned him to his office to explain himself. He
reprimanded Krützfeld, though he suffered no formal punishment and was
permitted to retire from the police without incident. Interestingly, Helldorf
himself was later implicated in the July 20, 1944, plot against Hitler
("Operation Valkyrie").
Krützfeld is today regarded in Germany as a hero of the Kristallnacht. To honor his courage, the
Berlin police have erected a memorial plaque on the front facade of the building that he saved,
which is now a major tourist attraction.
At Least 91 Jews Were Killed
Between 2,000 and 2,500 died in the following weeks
(either as suicides or in concentration camps).
Nazi leadership did not specifically
call for Jews to be killed. But even
after the first reports of killings
reached the national leadership in
the early hours of November 10,
nobody saw fit to issue an order
specifically prohibiting such acts.
When a Nazi officials in Munich
suggested to Goebbels that the
killing of Jews might cause the
pogrom to spiral out of control,
Goebbels answered that one should
"not get excited about a dead Jew."
A private Jewish home vandalized during Kristallnacht.
Vienna, Austria
Jewish Woman Complains of Money Stolen on Kristallnacht
Mannheim, 24 November 1938
Margarete Drexler, Landau Pfalz , Suedring st. 10
To the Secret State Police , Landau (Pfalz)
The sum of 900.- Marks in cash was confiscated from me in the course of the action of 10 November. I herewith request to act for the return of
my money, as I need it urgently for my and my child's livelihood.
I hope that my request will be granted, as my husband died as a result of his injuries during the war – he fought and died for his fatherland with
extreme courage -- and I am left without any income.
Until recent years you could have found a photo of my husband on the wall next to the picture of Generalfeldmarschall von Hindenburg in the
canteen of the 23 infantry regiment in Landau. This was done to honor his high military performance.
His medals and decorations prove that he fought with great courage and honor. He received:
The Iron Cross first class
The Iron Cross second class
The Military Order of Merit fourth class with swords.
The Military Order of Sanitation 2 class with a blue-white ribbon. This ribbon is usually bestowed only upon recipients of the Max
Joseph Order which accepts only members of the nobility.
I can only hope that as a widow of such a man, so honored by his country, my request for the return of my property will not be in vain.
With German greetings,
(signed) Frau Mrgarete Drexler
Widow of reserve staff surgeon
Dr. Hermann Drexler
Presently in Mannheim, 11 Kant st.
Enclosed: 6 photos of medals and decorations.
[Margarete Drexler was deported to France in October 1940 with the other Jews of the Pfalz area. She died in the Gurs camp. The date of her
death is unknown.]
Source: Yad Vashem Archive O.51/81.
The images that have come to dominate memory of the
Kristallnacht are those of damaged and destroyed buildings,
mainly synagogues but also Jewish-owned shops.
This focus on property has at time obscured the
massive terror against people
that unleashed during the pogrom.
Michael Bruce Michael Bruce, a non-Jewish Englishman,
provided this eyewitness account:
...Hurriedly we went out into the street. It was crowded with people, all hurrying towards a nearby
synagogue, shouting and gesticulating angrily. We followed. As we reached the synagogue and halted,
silent and angry, on the fringe of the mob, flames began to rise from one end of the building. It was the
signal for a wild cheer. The crowd surged forward and greedy hands tore seats and woodwork from the
building to feed the flames.
Behind us we heard more shouts. Turning, we saw a section of the mob start off along the road towards
Israel's store where, during the day, piles of granite cubes, ostensibly for repairing the roads, had been
heaped. Youths, men and women, howling deliriously, hurled the blocks through the windows and at the
closed doors. In a few minutes the doors gave way and the mob, shouting and fighting, surged inside to
pillage and loot.
By now the streets were a chaos of screaming bloodthirsty people lusting for Jewish bodies. I saw
Harrison of The News Chronicle, trying to protect an aged Jewess who had been dragged from her home
by a gang. I pushed my way through to help him and, between us, we managed to heave her through the
crowd to a side street and safety.
We turned back towards Israel's, but now the crowd, eager for fresh conquests, was pouring down a side
road towards the outskirts of the city. We hurried after them in time to see one of the foulest exhibitions
of bestiality I have ever witnessed. The object of the mob's hate was a hospital for sick Jewish children,
many of them cripples or consumptives. In minutes the windows had been smashed and the doors forced.
When we arrived, the swine were driving the wee mites out over the broken glass, bare-footed and
wearing nothing but their nightshirts. The nurses, doctors, and attendants were being kicked and beaten
by the mob leaders, most of whom were women.
Violence in Lichtenfels, Northern Bavaria
Population 7,000 (53 Jews)
The town had a synagogue, Jewish cemetery and a Jewish school founded in 1804.
Most Jews made their living from small-scale commerce
The violence began at the synagogue, where the Storm Troopers smashed windows, demolished furniture, and threw prayer books and
Torah scrolls out onto the street. They then proceeded to attack the Jewish community. It was not secret who the Jews were, where they
lived, or where they operated their businesses. The SA men dragged Jews out of their homes and paraded them, most still in their
pajamas and nightgowns, through the town. They vandalized Jewish homes and businesses. The forced entry into the home of the Jewish
family P. exemplified the intimacy of the pogrom in small communities such as Lichtenfels. The SA men broke down the front door to the
cheers of some members of the crowd onlookers that had formed. Once inside the home, one of the SA men, Franz F., was recognized by
Mrs. P., who exclaimed, "Herr F., are you here as well? Please, neighbor, leave us alone!" Franz F. hollered back, "Shut your trap, you old
Jewish swine, or we'll strike you dead!" At one business, the textile shop owned by the Jewish family K., systematic plundering took place
through the use of a delivery truck, which was loaded up with stolen items at least twice. The same truck was then used to haul away
carpets from the synagogues. The arrest of the Jewish men began at around 3:00 am. The SA rounded up 21 men and threw them into
the local jail. One of the Jewish men took his own life with poison in the jail. The police, under orders from the mayor - who happened to
be one of the chief organizers of the pogrom - stood by and did nothing. Only at 4:00 am did the police begin to intervene, mainly to
prevent the looting, which had become widespread, from getting completely out of hand.
What set the otherwise fairly typical case of Lichtenfels apart was the murder of a Jewish woman, Mrs. S., who lived directly adjacent to
the synagogue. As she opened a window to see what was happening next door, she was struck hard in the head by a riding crop. The
culprit was Franz F., Jr., the 27-year-old son of the man who had threatened Mrs. P. Mrs. S. was injured, but not badly. This seemed to
mark the end of the incident. About 12 hours later, however, on the afternoon of November 10, a mob consisting of both youths and
adults formed in front of the synagogue, and the threat to Mrs. S. was renewed. Several members of the mob, including Franz F., Jr.,
forced their way into her home and abused her physically, throwing eggs into her face and shoving her around until she bled from contact
with broken glass. The youths were responsible for much of the brutality, encouraged in their actions by Franz F., Jr., and other adults.
Franz F., Jr., seemed to bear some special animus toward Mrs. S. At one point he implored the youths to "strike her dead, the judensau,"
echoing some of the language his father had used during the night.
Late on November 10, the body of Mrs. S. was found in a ditch outside of town. Exactly how she was killed and by whom has never been
established.
Other Crimes Against Jews
Ostfriesland:
Jews were made to stand in their pajamas and sing obscene songs
in front of the burning synagogue.
Düsseldorf:
Jewish men and women had to march barefoot in their pajamas
across broken glass littered on the ground.
Lichtenfels:
Youths played football with Jewish prayer books while Jews were
made to look on.
Dortmund:
Jews were forced to throw their own furniture and other
possessions out the windows of their homes, and then made to
carry everything back upstairs.
Vienna:
Jews were forced to march through the streets clad in prayer
shawls and shredded Torah parchments.
Beuthen:
Jewish men and women were dragged out of their homes in the
middle of the night and forced to watch the synagogue burn. They
were made to stand before the burning building for hours. One
Jew was forced to kneel before the burning building in order to be
photographed.
About 31,000 Jews Arrested
(1/10 the current Jewish population in Germany)
Officially the Jews were not arrested for having
committed or attempted any crime. The legal
basis for their detention was the fiction of
"protective custody.”
The arrests were supposed to focus on a specific
subset of Jews - prosperous adult Jewish men but many Jews who did not fit this description
were swept up.
Jewish prisoners paraded by the SS and local police through the
streets of Baden-Baden.
Sign reads: God does not forgive us.
November 10, 1938.
Only gradually did many local police officers
achieve a clear understanding of the arrest order
and begin to enforce it. As a consequence, many
Jews who had been arrested in the initial sweep
were released in a matter of hours - especially
veterans of World War I as well as those who
could demonstrate that their emigration was
imminent.
Arrests in Baden Baden
The arrested men were paraded
through the streets.
Arrested men are forced to recite passages from
Hitler's Mein Kampf, Der Stuermer, and other
antisemitic writings at the pulpit of the
synagogue before it was destroyed.
Jewish prisoners jeered at by local crowds
on their way into the synagogue.
Jews arrested after Kristallnacht await
deportation to Dachau concentration
camp.
The synagogue of Baden-Baden in flames,
November 10, 1938.
Arrests in Vienna
German police officials arrested some 6,000 Austrian Jews and deported them to
Dachau. A small number of those arrested were sent to Buchenwald. Only those who
promised to emigrate immediately, leaving their property behind, were released.
Treatment was especially cruel.
Many were arrested in their homes, while others were seized while waiting in line at foreign
consulates. The police and SA created makeshift jails in schools, churches and even horse
stables. The humiliation took many forms.
 At many jails, captors forced the Jews to do physical exercises continuously and beat them
when they refused or collapsed.
 At the stables, Jews were forced to hold their arms high so that as many people as possible
could be crammed into the space.
 Some were made to crawl around on cobblestone pavement on their hands and knees
while being forced to spit on and hit one another.
 Hundreds spent hours without food or water.
 They were not allowed to go to the bathroom; many were punished when they had to
relieve themselves.
Jews Sent to Concentration Camps, November 10, 1938
10,000
9800
11,000
The Camps
Even though the camp system had been expanded
in the late 1930’s, they were not prepared to
absorb such large numbers so quickly.
Many prisoners had to sleep outside, despite
mid-November cold. There were serious
shortages of food, water, latrines, showers, and
other facilities related to hygiene.
Several hundred Jewish prisoners died in the
camps under these conditions between
November 1938 and early 1939. Many of the
deaths were murders at the hands of the SS
guards. Some were the result of suicide or hard
labor.
Jews arrested during Kristallnacht line up for roll
call at the Buchenwald concentration camp.
November 1938.
Lorenz C. Schmuhl Papers, USHMM Archives
Upon their release, prisoners were warned not to
talk about their experience.
By the spring of 1939, only several hundred of the
30,000 Jewish men arrested were still in the
camps.
The Spin in the Nazi Press
Newspapers were authorized to write about the events as long as they conformed to a
certain preferred story line.
 They were to emphasize than an "understandably outraged" population had given
its "spontaneous answer" to the murder of Ernst vom Rath.
 There would be no mention of the central role of the Nazi Party as the orchestrator.
 Editors were expected to obfuscate the systematic nature of the pogrom by noting
that windows were smashed "here and there" and that in some places "synagogues
ignited themselves" or had gone up in flames for some other reason.
 Newspapers were told to focus on local events and avoid any suggestion that an
operation had taken place on a Reich-wide scale.
 The reports were not to be large or prominent, and they were to be relegated to
page two or three.
 There would be no headlines and no pictures related to the violence.
The Foreign Press
The Telegraph (British Newspaper)
November 12, 1938
FOREIGN VICTIMS
Inquiries which I have made here prove conclusively that outrages in yesterday’s pogrom were by no
means contained to German Jewish citizens and their property. Apart from the incidents involving
foreign diplomats and the revolting cruelty to a Rumanian citizen of Dortmund reported in The Daily
Telegraph and Morning Post today, personal assaults and damage totaling many thousands of pounds
have been suffered by nationals of al least half a dozen important countries.
The department store of Messrs Israel, which is owned by a British citizen, was sacked and gutted, the
loss in this single case amounting to tens of thousands of pounds. It is understood that the store was
insured with a London firm.
The United States consular authorities have been notified of at least three or four cases in which shops
owned by Americans have been smashed to atoms and the stock ruined. The Czech diplomatic
authorities have also been informed of outrages to Czech-owned shops. I personally witnessed the
sacking of a large and fashionable café owned by a Hungarian citizen.
The Telegraph (British Newspaper)
SPONTANEOUS OUTBREAK / Dr. Goebbels’s Claim
Dr. Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda, today summoned a meeting of Berlin’s foreign correspondents
to give them a final version of yesterday’s outbreaks. Although, he said, he did not doubt the good faith
of the correspondents present, he declared that the reports in the foreign Press this morning had been
full of “misunderstandings”.
The demonstrations had not been organized but were “typically spontaneous and popular”. He
protested strongly against reports that Jewish shops had been plundered.
He also objected to statements that the police had failed to interfere; 200,000 police in Berlin alone, he
said, would have been required to protect the Jewish shops from the rage of the population. It was
impossible to order them to fire on the crowds.
This apparent admission that the authorities are unable to maintain law and order in a country such as
Germany, which prides itself on its “discipline”, seemed to conflict with Dr. Goebbels’s subsequent
statement that the demonstrations stopped immediately he gave the word.
He also declared earlier in his address that he had prevented “spontaneous demonstration” after the
murder of Gustloff, the Nazi leader in Switzerland in 1936.
The Telegraph (British Newspaper)
TRAMPLED TO DEATH / Elderly Jew’s fate
Dr. Goebbels, who was in Munich yesterday and only in telephonic communication with Berlin, said that no physical attacks had been made
on Jews. Apart from the cases that were reported yesterday I can now state that an elderly Jew was trampled to death last night on the
Lehnienerplatz, off the Kuerfuerstendamm, in the West End of Berlin.
In an article which will appear in the Press tomorrow, Dr. Goebbels ascribes yesterday’s outrages to the “healthy instinct” of the German
people. He accuses the Foreign Press of telling lies about the demonstrations and of twisting the facts.
“The anti-German Jewish Foreign Press must know,” he writes, “that by exaggerating the events and by lies and misrepresentations it will
benefit neither itself nor the Jews living in Germany. The opposite is more likely to be the case.
“The German people is anti-Semitic. It has no desire to have its right restricted or to be provoked in future by parasites of Jewish race.
“Anti-German foreign countries would do well to leave the solution of this problem to the Germans. If they feel the necessity to stand up for
the case of the German Jews, they can have as many of our Jews as they like.”
Dr. Goebbels asserts that Grynszpan, the murderer of Herr vom Rath, was sheltered and systematically trained for his crime by a Jewish
organization.
“There is no need to emphasise,” he concludes, “that the public reaction is now finally concluded throughout Germany. No one has the right
to take any further action on his own responsibility Laws and decrees which will settle this question are to be expected.”
A violently worded statement was issued here tonight in reply to suggestions in the French Press that the anti-Jewish outbreak may be made
the subject of a debate in the British House of Commons.
“Berlin,” it is declared, “would be equally justified in staging a debate in the German Reichstag about British actions in Palestine. The only
difference would be that the British work of destruction and atrocities would provide the Reichstag with matter for several weeks’ discussion,
while the House of Commons would only have some broken window panes and burnt synagogues to debate.”
I now learn that the pogrom extended during the course of yesterday to the Sudeten areas, recently added to Germa ny.
Where Was Hitler?
November 9-10
Adolf Hitler spent the night of November 9-10 in his
private apartment at the Prinzregentenplatz in
Munich. He was kept informed about the course of
the pogrom by Joseph Goebbels and others.
November 10 Lunch
Hitler and Goebbels met for lunch on November
10th. Hitler reviewed and approved a statement
that Goebbels intended to issue to the German
nation in which he would call for the violence to
cease.
The following was issued by Goebbels at 4:00 pm, November 10
The justified and understandable outrage of the German people against the cowardly
Jewish assassination of a German diplomat in Paris vented itself on a large scale last night.
In numerous cities and towns of the Reich, measures of retribution were taken against
Jewish buildings and businesses. A strict order is now being issued to the entire population
to desist from all further demonstrations and actions against Jewry, regardless of what
type. The definitive response to the Jewish assassination in Paris will be delivered to Jewry
via the route of legislation and edicts.
Impact on Insurance Industry
Discussed over lunch, November 10
Hitler assured Goebbels that the Jews themselves
would have to cover the cost of the property
damage. "The insurance companies will pay them
nothing" was how Goebbels recorded Hitler's
statement in his diary.
The insurance industry was worried that a failure
to cover the damages would result in lawsuits and
ultimately harm its reputation among policy
holders living abroad.
Eduard Hilgard, director of insurance giant Allianz,
suggested that insurance companies be allowed
to honor claims from their policy holders, but
then be reimbursed for this huge expenditure by
the government. The state would pass this
expense on to the Jews.
Today the main shopping streets of Berlin
look as if they had been hit by a typhoon.
Rough wooden boards have been placed
over the broken windows, and the glass,
which was still lying about last night, has
been swept up. It is almost certain that none
of the shops will ever open again under
Jewish ownership. Many have already been
bought by Aryans at knockdown prices.
The Telegraph (British Newspaper),
November 12, 1938
Assessment for Damages
• The Jews were blamed for the pogrom.
• While the insurance companies honored their
claims from their policy holders, the Reich
government confiscated all insurance payouts
• The rubble from the destruction had to be
cleaned up by the Jews
• Jewish store and home owners had to repair
their buildings at their own cost
Finance Office in Friedrichshain,
states that the tax assessment for Dr.
Norbert Landecker is set at 4000
Reichsmarks and is to be paid in four
installments.
• A punitive fine of 1 billion Reichsmarks (about
$400 million at 1938 rates) was imposed on the
Jewish community.
Public Opinion of the Event
Most Germans were NOT directly involved.
Nevertheless, large number of Germans witnessed, or soon became informed about, the pogrom
and its immediate consequences.
Opinion about the pogrom was divided.
A majority of the population had not approved of the action, but a significant portion either
supported it or did not object to it. Catholics tended to be more alarmed than Protestants.
Disapproval focused mainly on damage to property and the general breakdown of order; less concern
was expressed over the treatment of fate of the Jews themselves.
Fear promotes silence?
It has been suggested that people who might have been inclined to condemn the Kristallnacht on
moral or humanitarian (as opposed to material) grounds had good reason to think twice before doing
so. The Nazi regime was more than willing to punish its citizens for such gestures of defiance
Criticism remained muted.
While the above objections may be evident, the overwhelming majority of the German public including those who were critical of the pogrom - had approved of the legal and bureaucratic
measures implemented against the Jews since 1933. In the weeks after the Kristallnacht, when the
Nazi regime implemented a host of measures to accelerate the "Aryanization" of Jewish property and
to hasten the emigration of Jews from the country, criticism remained muted.
Punishment for the Crimes
The Nazi leadership faced a dilemma. If it acted as though no laws had been broken, it risked losing
its credibility with Germans who still valued a functioning system of justice. On the other hand,
pursuing justice against persons who had committed crimes during the pogrom - especially members
of the Nazi Party - could potentially prove highly embarrassing to the party and its leaders.
 All cases against members of the Nazi Party were handled by the Gestapo and the Nazi Party Court,
not the traditional legal system.
 Arson, damage to property, and destruction of synagogues and Jewish cemeteries were not to be
prosecuted," as these were idealistic motives.
Blackmailers and looters who acted out of greed, as well as sexual offenders, were to be prosecuted.
 The courts expelled 4 Storm Troopers for having raped or molested Jewish girls during the pogrom.
It condemned the immorality of these acts but also underscored the violation of Nazi racial principles.
 The majority of the party members who were investigated for murder either got off scot-free or
were subjected to relatively mild disciplinary measures. None were expelled from the party.
 Only a small percentage of the perpetrators of the pogrom were ever placed on trial (before or after
the war), reinforcing the dominant belief in postwar Germany that only a tiny segment of German
society had actually been responsible for the Kristallnacht.
Grynszpan’s Fate
 Preparations for the trial in Paris dragged on through the summer of 1939, only to be
delayed by the events of war. As a result of the German conquest of France in the spring of
1940, Grynszpan fell into German hands. He was interrogated by the Gestapo in Berlin and
then later transferred to Sachsenhausen.
 In the autumn of 1941, Grynszpan was indicted for high treason and murder. The trial was
to be broadcast nationally on radio, furthering Nazi propaganda showing a connection
between Grynszpan and a Jewish conspiracy to cause war in Europe. A day-by-day outline for
a week-long show trial was created. The court, by prior arrangement, would sentence
Grynszpan to death.
 One obstacle emerged: In the fall of 1941, Grynszpan told his Gestapo interrogator that
the shooting in Paris had actually been related to a homosexual liaison that he had had with
Ernst vom Rath. Most historians regard the homosexuality story as only a clever defense tactic
concocted either by Grynszpan or his lawyer. The concerned propaganda minister wanted the
trial to focus on Jewish warmongering, not on a possible sordid homosexual relationship.
Plans for the trial were placed on hold.
 Postwar testimony from survivors of Sachsenhausen points to the probability that
Herschel Grynszpan was executed in the summer of 1942, shortly after his life had been
rendered dispensable by the decision to abandon the show trial.
Marga Randall was born in Lemfoerde,
Germany, in 1930.
Marga’s father had a fatal heart attack upon
hearing of his imminent arrest by the Nazis.
Marga sought refuge with her mother’s family
in the small town of Schermbeck, and after
Kristallnacht Marga moved with her mother and
sister to Berlin.
They eventually immigrated to New York in
1941 via France, Spain and Portugal.
Marga Randall
Video:
Kristallnacht in a Small
German Town
In addition to establishing a family, Marga
widely lectured on her experiences during the
Holocaust, publishing her memoirs under the
title Grandfather Didn’t Come Home.
Marga Randall passed away in 2005.
Yad Vashem Archives V.T. 294
Arnold Goldschmidt was born in Fulda,
Germany, in 1922.
Arrested during Kristallnacht, he was
deported to Buchenwald concentration
camp, where he was subjected to a brutal
regime of forced labor and beatings.
Arnold was eventually released and
returned to his hometown of Fulda. He
was later sent on a children’s transport to
Holland, where he lived in different
children’s homes.
Arnold Goldschmidt
Video:
Kristallnacht in the city
of Fulda
Immigrating to the United States, he later
enlisted in the US Army.
Arnold Goldschmidt immigrated to Israel
in 1966.
Yad Vashem Archives V.T. 3246
Miriam Ron
A written interview
with Miriam Ron
The Gottschedstrasse Synagogue
during Kristallnacht.
Leipzig, Germany
Susan (Strauss) Taube
Born on January 9, 1926
Vacha, Germany
Video Testimony
Kristallnacht was a turning point in history.
The pogroms marked a shift from antisemitic rhetoric to violent,
aggressive anti-Jewish measures that would culminate in the
Holocaust—the systematic, state sponsored murder of Jews.
The violence shocked the world that had been hopeful for peace in
the aftermath of the Munich agreement less than six weeks before.
As President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States commented
in a press conference on November 15, 1938, “I myself could scarcely
believe that such things could occur in a twentieth century
civilization.” He recalled the U.S. ambassador to Germany for
consultation.