What is Kristallnacht?
Q: What is Kristallnacht?
A: Kristallnacht (also called Reichskristallnacht, Reichspogromnacht, or Night of the Broken Glass) was a two-day pogrom that happened against Jews in Nazi Germany and parts of Austria between 9 and 10 November 1938.
Q: How did it start?
A: It started when Herschel Grynszpan (sometimes also spelled Grünspan), a 17-year-old Jew living in Paris, fired shots at Ernst Eduard vom Rath, who was a secretary of the German embassy in Paris on 7 November. Vom Rath died of his wounds on 9 November.
Q: What was Grynszpan's motive?
A: In a judicial hearing in 1942, he said it was revenge for his family being made to go back to Zsbaszyn in Poland even though the younger children had been born in Germany. He meant to shoot the ambassador but hit the secretary instead.
Q: What were some of the consequences of Kristallnacht?
A: About 30,000 Jews were moved to concentration camps and over 1,500 synagogues were pillaged and partly destroyed. Also almost all Jewish cemeteries in Germany and Austria were destroyed. This marked the change from discriminating against Jews to actively persecuting and deporting them.
Q: Was there an event similar to Kristallnacht before this one?
A: Yes, there had been a similar event in February 1936 where a Jewish student named David Frankfurter fired shots at NSDAP secretary Wilhelm Gustloff but there were almost no consequences because at that time they could not act due to the 1936 Summer Olympics taking place in Berlin.
Q: How did Nazis use this event as an excuse?
A: The Nazis used this event as an excuse to seize Jewish property.
