November 9-10 is the 86^th anniversary of Kristallnacht, “The Night of Broken Glass,” named for the pieces of glass that littered the street after Jewish homes, synagogues and businesses were destroyed in Germany and occupied territories.  Also referred to as the November pogroms, a definition meant to encapsulate the multiple, violent attacks on Jews by the local non-Jewish community, Kristallnacht was a turning point in the early phases of the Holocaust. Although officials claimed the pogroms were spontaneous reactions to the assassination of a German diplomat by a Jewish teen, the violence was organized and sanctioned by the state.

The Nazi party seized on the assassination as grounds for escalating their campaign against the Jews, led by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. In his now infamous speech, Goebbels said, “the Führer has decided that … demonstrations should not be prepared or organized by the Party, but insofar as they erupt spontaneously, they are not to be hampered.” These words essentially provided the necessary authorization and endorsement for the violence and destruction that was to follow.

On the heels of this speech, orders were sent from the head of the Security Police to local units of the State Police, SA (Storm Troopers) and Hitler Youth instructing them to destroy Jewish homes, synagogues, and Jewish-owned businesses. While they were given free reign in terms of how to inflict this terror, they were specifically directed not to cause harm to any non-Jewish people or buildings. Synagogues went up in flames in plain view of firefighters who made no attempt to stop or contain the situation. Approximately 7,500 Jewish-owned businesses had their windows shattered before being looted and vandalized. Again, local police did nothing and, in many cases, played an active role in the destruction.

Kristallnacht also marked the first time that large numbers of Jews were arrested for no reason other than being Jewish. Following orders from the head of the Security Police, officers were instructed to round up as many Jewish men—preferably those who were healthy and strong—as the local jails could hold.  In the wake of the November pogroms, 30,000 Jewish men were transferred from these prisons to concentration camps.

In the aftermath of Kristallnacht, not only were Jews devastated by the loss of their homes, businesses and places of worship, they were blamed by the German government for the financial toll the pogroms placed on society. The Nazi Party ordered the local Jewish community to pay what was referred to as an “atonement tax” of 1 billion Reichmark, which would have translated to 400 million US dollars in 1938. In addition, the weeks that followed the November pogroms saw a sharp increase in anti-Jewish laws across Germany and German-occupied territories that led to further persecution and loss of rights.  

Despite attempts to block reports of what had taken place from getting out to the international community, some photographs made their way to the United States, where they were featured in the November 28, 1938, issue of Life magazine.  The Los Angeles Examiner published news about the pogroms on the front page of their November 23, 1938, edition with the headline, “Nazis Warn World Jews Will Be Wiped Out Unless Evacuated by Democracies.” Not until the end of the war would the actions of the Nazis towards the Jews receive this level of media outcry.

And yet, Kristallnacht served as the first step in steadily increasing systematic antisemitic vitriol, discrimination and harassment. Although disguised as community-led riots, the November pogroms and their aftermath involved state-sanctioned systems of power: government leaders, law enforcement, firefighters, insurance/banking companies, legislators. Kristallnacht proved that it was possible for these forces to join together to persecute Jews while the community largely stood by and allowed it to happen.

Insights offered by Stacy Gallin, director of CARMA, the Center to Combat Antisemitism and Reinforce Multicultural Acceptance.