Kristallnacht
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Kristallnacht (also called Reichskristallnacht, Reichspogromnacht) was a two day pogrom that happened against Jews in Nazi Germany and parts of Austria. It was between November 9 and November 10, 1938. About 30 000 Jews were moved to concentration camps, and over 1500 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.
Herschel Grynszpan (sometimes also spelled Grünspan), a 17 year old jew living in Paris learned that his whole family had been chased away to Zsbaszyn. He obtained a gun. With this he fired shots at a sectretary of the German embassy in Paris. This was on November 7. The secretary he fired at was called Ernst Eduard vom Rath. The secretary died of his wounds on November 9.
The motive of Grynszpan is unclear. In a judicial hearing in 1942, he sad it was revenge. He wanted to shoot the ambassador, but hit the secretary instead.
In 1938, the basis of the NSDAP used this event as an excuse to seize Jewish property. A similar event in February 1936 was almost without consequences. Then, the Jewish student David Frankfurter had fired shots at the NSDAP secretary Wilhelm Gustloff. At that time, the NSDAP could not act because of the Summer Olympics of 1936 in Berlin.
