What is the significance of the name kristallnacht

In fact, according to this version, unaffiliated Germans were for the most part shocked, if not opposed, to the rioting. The 80th anniversary provides a good opportunity to look at these assumptions, some of which have been upturned by recent decades of scholarship. This expulsion began almost immediately, as the regime quickly set in motion a plan for mass arrests. Within days, some 33, German-Jewish men were rounded up and sent to one of three different concentration camps: Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen and Dachau.

This amounted to one of every five Jewish men between the ages of 20 and According to Prof. Needless to say, singling out the most fitting victims took significant planning. But in , the Holocaust was still not an inevitability. Nonetheless, the period immediately preceding and following Kristallnacht can be understood as a turning point — if not for German society in general, then for Jewish-German society, according to Gross.

This was difficult after the Anschluss [the Nazi annexation of Austria in March ], but people still tried to emigrate. And in the Zionist organizations they still thought in terms of emigration. Jews were no longer thinking about the best place to go, but just how to get out. If anyone doubts that, says Gross, they need only look at the Kindertransport operation, in which some 10, Jewish children from the German Reich were sent by their desperate parents to be cared for by volunteers in the United Kingdom.

With a few exceptions e. En gland, which increased its absorption of refugees after Kristallnacht , the doors to safety remained barred. As one leader of German Jewry stated two months after Kristallnacht January 25, , "From America, nothing tangible in immigration possibilities has arrived. Kristallnacht serves as the symbol of that destruction.

The synagogues and Torah scrolls that were burned and desecrated, signified, as Rabbi Leo Baeck had earlier realized, that "the thousand-year history of the Jews in Germanv had come to an end.

Nobel Prize winners and rabbinic scholars, businessmen and soldiers, government ministers and social activists all had their worlds shattered, along with the thousands of windows that gave Kristallnacht its name. There are important lessons to be drawn from Kristallnacht, for it served as a bridge experience for both Jews and Nazis. For the Jews, there was the terrifying realization that political antisemitism can lead to violence, even in Western Civilization. It also demonstrated that apathy can still pervade the world when the lives of Jews or other minorities are threatened.

For the Nazis, Kristallnacht taught that while the world might condemn their pogroms, it would not actively oppose them. In the fall of , Herschel Grynszpan , a year-old ethnically Polish Jew who had been living in France for several years, learned that the Nazis had exiled his parents to Poland from Hanover, Germany, where Herschel had been born and his family had lived for years.

As retaliation, on November 7, , the agitated teenager shot Ernst vom Rath , a German diplomat in Paris. Rath died two days later from his wounds, and Hitler attended his funeral. Kristallnacht was the result of that rage. Starting in the late hours of November 9 and continuing into the next day, Nazi mobs torched or otherwise vandalized hundreds of synagogues throughout Germany and damaged, if not completely destroyed, thousands of Jewish homes, schools, businesses, hospitals and cemeteries.

Nearly Jews were murdered during the violence. Nazi officials ordered German police officers and firemen to do nothing as the riots raged and buildings burned, although firefighters were allowed to extinguish blazes that threatened Aryan-owned property. In the immediate aftermath of Kristallnacht, the streets of Jewish communities were littered with broken glass from vandalized buildings, giving rise to the name Night of Broken Glass.

Holocaust Memorial Museum. Additionally, more than 30, Jewish men were arrested and sent to the Dachau , Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen concentration camps in Germany—camps that were specifically constructed to hold Jews, political prisoners and other perceived enemies of the Nazi state. On November 15, , Franklin D. Roosevelt , the American president, responded to Kristallnacht by reading a statement to the media in which he harshly denounced the rising tide of anti-Semitism and violence in Germany.

He also recalled Hugh Wilson, his ambassador to Germany. One reason was anxiety over the possibility that Nazi infiltrators would be encouraged to legally settle in the U. A more obscured reason was the anti-Semitic views held by various upper-echelon officials in the U.

State Department. One such administrator was Breckinridge Long , who was responsible for carrying out policies relating to immigration.

The violence of Kristallnacht served notice to German Jews that Nazi anti-Semitism was not a temporary predicament and would only intensify. As a result, many Jews began to plan an escape from their native land. Trending keywords:. Featured Content. Tags Find topics of interest and explore encyclopedia content related to those topics. Browse A-Z Find articles, photos, maps, films, and more listed alphabetically. For Teachers Recommended resources and topics if you have limited time to teach about the Holocaust.

Wise — International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. About This Site. Glossary : Full Glossary. Kristallnacht On November 9—10, , Nazi leaders unleashed a series of pogroms against the Jewish population in Germany and recently incorporated territories. Key Facts.

More information about this image. Origin of the Name "Kristallnacht" Kristallnacht owes its name to the shards of shattered glass that lined German streets in the wake of the pogrom—broken glass from the windows of synagogues, homes, and Jewish-owned businesses plundered and destroyed during the violence. Discussion Questions How did leaders, diplomats, and citizens around the world respond to the events of the Holocaust?

Glossary Terms. Critical Thinking Questions How did the events of Kristallnacht compare to previous anti-Jewish actions and violence in Germany under the Nazis? Explore the range of reactions to the violence of Kristallnacht among the German people. What pressures and motivations may have influenced their choice to participate, to help the victims, or to turn away? How did the United States and other nations respond to the news of the nationwide riot?

What responsibilities do other nations have to the persecuted citizens of another sovereign nation, if any? How can knowledge of the events in Germany and Europe before the Nazis came to power help citizens today respond to threats of genocide and mass atrocity in the world? Further Reading Gilbert, Martin. Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction.

New York: HarperCollins, Read, Anthony. Kristallnacht: The Nazi Night of Terror.