• Kristellnacht was the name of the first major attack on the Jewish people. “Kristallnacht” means “night of broken glass” and with good reason. The Germans burned Jewish stores and buildings and broke all the windows. They also robbed the stores.

-April 28, 1938.

-This newspaper article describes a decree passed that stated all Jewish people had to give the German government all their fortunes and property. -April 28, 1938.

-This decree was made to encourage the emigration of Jewish people from Germany.

June 23 , 1938. Berlin, Germany.

On this night the propaganda minister Paul Joseph Goebbels put a stamp of official approval of the new feeling of anti-Semitism, this caused a massive crowd of 120,000 people to scream out, “Out with Jews- Out with Jews”. This article also describes how recently all Jewish businesses were smeared with red paint so anyone to pass by was aware. He was also stated to have started open campaigns and riots against the Jewish people with his speeches. “If people say, ‘why, the Jews aren’t doing anything,’ I say why they are provoking us with their very presence.”

Ernst Von Rath

• German Diplomat in Paris

• Killed by Herschel Grynszpan in retaliation for his parents expulsion to Poland

-November 13, 1938.

-This paper describes the punishment given to all Jews when a German diplomat was killed by a Polish-German Jew. That boys name was Herschel Grynszpan, and he had shot a government official triggering Kristallnacht.

-This paper states that the Jews were fined $400,000,000 and all of the shops ruined had to pay for the repairs

-It also lists the decrees issued barring them from working in certain businesses and excluding them from theaters, movie houses and other public presentations.

• Kristallnacht was significant to the Holocaust because it was the first major attack and started all the later events in the Holocaust. Night Of Broken Glass got a lot of Jews in the concentration camps and got a lot of them killed.

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Who Spoke Out During Kristallnacht?

• President Roosevelt recalled the German Ambassador in protest

• He also extended the visas of over 12000 German Jews visiting in the US

• Widespread condemnation in the press

• Little concrete action with respect to immigration issues