Across Germany and German-occupied Austria

1. November 9th & 10th, 1938 • Across Germany and German-occupied Austria

2. 1,668 synagogues ransacked • Another 267 synagogues burned • 7,500 storefronts of Jewish-owned businesses shattered

3. Kristallnacht Remembering the Past Created by Kaitlyn Fridley

4. Background • November 7th, 1938 • Paris, France • Herschel Grynszpan, a Jewish student from Germany, assassinates Ernst vom Rath, a German diplomat in France • Grynszpan’s family, among thousands of other Jews, were deported to Poland from Germany by the Gestapo; however, Poland would not accept the train cars full of Jews, and Germany would not take them back

5. Background • 12,000 Jews were stranded at the border of Poland and Germany, with little food, and poor conditions • Grynszpan’s actions were to call attention to the matter on the border; he wrote a postcard to his parents before the assassination, which he kept in his pocket. On it, it read: • “With God’s help. My dear parents, I could not do otherwise, may God forgive me, the heart bleeds when I hear of your tragedy and that of the 12,000 Jews. I must protest so that the whole world hears my protest, and that I will do. Forgive me.”

6. Herschel Grynszpan at the time of his arrest

7. Background • The death of vom Rath on November 9th, days after the shooting, overlapped with the fifteenth anniversary of the infamous Beer Hall Putsch, the greatest day on the Nazi calendar • Josef Goebbels, the Propaganda Minister, gave an inflammatory speech in front of the beer hall in Munich, outraged that a German Diplomat was assassinated by a Jew

8. Background • In his speech, Goebbels stated that it would not be surprising if the Germans took the law into their own hands and attacked the Jewish community. Such “spontaneous outbursts,” would not be openly organized by the Nazi party or the SA, but neither would they be opposed or prevented • Within hours, Kristallnacht was underway

9. Kristallnacht • November 9-10, 1938

10. Bent Star of David over the cupolaZerrennerstrasse synagogue Pforzheim, Germany

11. Local residents watch burning of ceremonial hall at a Jewish cemetery Graz, Austria

12. The New York Times

13. The New York Times Excerpt • “No foreign propagandist bent upon blackening Germany before the world could outdo the tale of burnings and beatings, of blackguardly assaults of defenseless and innocent people, which disgraced that country yesterday.”

14. The Philadelphia Inquirer

15. No other event in the history of German Jews between 1933-1945 was so widely reported while it was occurring

16. Boerneplatz SynagogueFrankfurt Am Main, Germany

17. Last remaining wall of the Boerneplatz synagogue Frankfurt am Main, Germany

18. Burning Synagogue • Memel, Germany

19. Synagogue of Opava Sudentenland, Germany

20. Remnants of the synagogue in Aachen, Germany

22. 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and deported to concentration camps- primarily Dachau, Sachsenhausen, and Buchenwald • Many arrested Jews were forced to march and humiliate themselves publicly • At the synagogue in Baden-Baden, the SS forced the Jews to sing Nazi songs and read Mein Kampf instead of reading the Torah before the Ark

23. Arrested Jews awaiting deportation to Dachau • Baden-Baden, Germany

24. Arrested Jews awaiting deportation to Sachsenhausen • Zeven, Germany

25. Forced march of arrested Kristallnacht Jews • Baden-Baden, Germany

26. German civilians watch the forced march of arrested Jewish men Baden-Baden, Germany

27. Roll call of newly arrived prisoners, mainly arrested Kristallnacht Jews Buchenwald concentration camp

28. Zeven, Germany • German children watch SS guards burn religious objects from the local synagogue

29. Nazi officials inspect Zerrenerstrasse synagogue

30. Holy Ark demolished, Seitenstetten Street synagogue Vienna, Austria

31. German civilians watch fireman put out a burning home next to a burning synagogue Oberramstadt, Germany

32. Ransacked interior Hechingen synagogue

33. Damaged Lintel above the Torah Ark Nentershausen, Germany

34. Bystanders survey broken window of a Jewish storefront

35. Jewish-owned business,vandalized storefront

36. Kristallnacht aftermath

37. Aftermath • November 9th & 10th, 1938 • 1,668 synagogues ransacked • Another 267 synagogues burned • 7,500 storefronts of Jewish-owned businesses shattered • Approximately 30,000 Jewish men arrested and deported • 91 Jewish civilians killed

38. And the world stood in silence…