Matt+Alshefski

= = = = **Kristallnacht** = =

Kristallnacht was an anti-Jewish pogrom that destroyed Jewish homes, businesses, synagogues, and property and considered the start of the Holocaust. Also during the pogrom thousands of Jews were arrested and dozens were killed. This event took place on the nights of November 9 and 10, 1938 throughout Germany, Austria, and Sudetenland located in Czechoslovakia. The plan was carried by German SS officers, SA officers, and Gestapo police who roamed the streets starting fires, smashing windows, beating Jews, making Jews perform public acts of humilation, and raping Jewish women. During this whole event the local fire and police departments only prvented damage to non-Jewish property and protected non-Jewish citizens and foriegners. Germany had been looking for a way to get all the Jews out of the country. The first way they did this was by loading thousands of Jews in train cars and dumping them off at borderes of other countries near Germany. This did not work out as planned because those countries did not want the Jews either because they could not find jobs and many ended up in refuge camps. The Nazis needed an excuse for arresting the Jews and sending them to concentrarion camps and on November 7, 1938 they got the excuse they needed. On that day a German diplomat, Ernst vom Rath, was shot by a 17 year old Polish Jew, [|Herschel Grynszpan,] in Paris. Joseph Goebbels used this as a reason to plan the violent pogrom against Jews living in German territory. Later, Germany said that the real reason for that attacks was public sentiment for vom Rath who died on same night as the attacks. There was a great deal of damage once the pogrom was over. Glass covered that streets and buildings were still burning into the morning. 7500 businesses were destroyed, 267 synagogues were destroyed and many others damaged, schools and cemeteries were vandalized, 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps, and 91 were dead. It took Belgium's total plate glass production about six months to replace all the windows that were broken during the attacks. In order to pay for damages the Jews were fined heavily. They were charged six billion Deutsch Marks for the damages and one billion marks for the assassinationof vom Rath. Also Jews who were arrested got there property taken away and sold by Germany to citizens and foriegners.

What was Kristallnacht and where did it take place? Who was Herschel Grynszpan? How much money were the Jews charged once Kristallnacht was over?
 * For more information on Kristallnacht click** [|**here**]