Kristallnacht: The Night Their Dreams Were Shattered

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Kristallnacht The Night Their Dreams Were
Shattered
By Student Block ____ Date
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INTRODUCTION
Are you interested in the events that took place
during the Holocaust? Have you ever wondered what
it would be like to have everything that you
needed and loved taken away from you? Thats what
happened to thousands of Jews on two days in
November 1938. This is when Kristallnacht took
place. Im sure your wondering what that was and
what it means. If you read further you are sure
to find out.
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KRISTALLNACHT
My first source was the online version of Grolier
Multimedia Encyclopedia. My language arts
teacher recommended it to me. On this website I
found out that Kristallnacht actually means
Crystal Glass or The Night of the Broken
Glass. It refers to the events that occurred on
November 9-10, 1938. This is when Nazis
terrorized many German Jews. They destroyed their
businesses, homes, and synagogues.
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It was staged to appear as a demonstration of the
German populace, Kristallnacht was a planned and
carefully executed intensification of Hitlers
campaign against the Jews. The destruction led by
Hitlers SA, SS, and the Hitler Youth, included
attacks on 7,500 Jewish businesses, the burning
of 170 synagogues, and the murder of dozens of
Jews.
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An estimated 26,000 Jews were arrested and sent
to concentration camps. Most were released in a
few weeks. Kristallnacht was established in
response to the assassination of a German
diplomat by a young Jewish man in Paris. That is
all the information that I was able to find on
that source.
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HOW KRISTALLNACHT WAS CARRIED OUT
My second source was the Internet version of the
Encyclopedia of the Third Reich. This source gave
me basically the same information as the first
one. It stated that on the nights of November
9-10, 1938 groups of Nazi youth roamed through
the Jewish neighborhoods breaking windows of
Jewish homes and businesses, looting and burning
synagogues.
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This source gave me a lot of different statistics
on the things that took place, so some of the
numbers may vary from the first source. It was
recorded that 101 synagogues were burned and
destroyed. Almost 7,500 Jewish businesses were
demolished and 26,000 Jews were arrested and sent
to concentration camps. There they were beaten
and attacked. 91 were reported dead. Frustrated
by the continued success of Jewish-owned
businesses, Hitler and Joseph Goebbels had been
seeking a way to further demolish the Jewish
business community. After the physical demolition
of Kristallnacht, the government levied a fine
for a billion Reich marks against the Jewish
community, and declared its right to all
insurance payments for the damage done.
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A few weeks after Kristallnacht the Nazis
promulgated new laws aimed at disenfranchising
and persecuting the Jewish nation. Three days
after Kristallnacht on the day of November 12th a
meeting was called by Goering of the top Nazi
leadership to estimate the damage done during the
nights and determine who was responsible for it.
Present at this meeting was Goering, Goebbels,
Rienhard Heydrich, Walter Funk, and other Nazi
officials. The intention for this meeting was to
make the Jews responsible for the acts that were
carried out on that night and to use the things
that occurred on the proceeding days as a
rationale for promulgating anti-Semitic laws that
would in effect remove all Jews from the German
economy. At the end of this meeting the Jews
became legally and financially responsible for
the acts and damages that their enemies planned
and executed.
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A few weeks after Kristallnacht the Nazis
promulgated new laws aimed at disenfranchising
and persecuting the Jewish nation. Three days
after Kristallnacht on the day of November 12th a
meeting was called by Goering of the top Nazi
leadership to estimate the damage done during the
nights and determine who was responsible for it.
Present at this meeting was Goering, Goebbels,
Rienhard Heydrich, Walter Funk, and other Nazi
officials. The intention for this meeting was to
make the Jews responsible for the acts that were
carried out on that night and to use the things
that occurred on the proceeding days as a
rationale for promulgating anti-Semitic laws that
would in effect remove all Jews from the German
economy. At the end of this meeting the Jews
became legally and financially responsible for
the acts and damages that their enemies planned
and executed.
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My fourth source was a book titled The Holocaust
Volume 2 by Geoffrey Wigoeler. I found in the
school library. As with all the other sources
some of the information may overlap and some of
it may be different. Im sure as you read this
report you have been wondering what the word
pogrom means. While reading this book it stated
that a pogrom was an attack on Jews and took
place on the nights of November 9-10, 1938. The
name had originated from the thousands of windows
that the Nazis broke.
POGRAMS
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Kristallnacht is also referred to as the November
Pogrom. On November 7, 1938 a young Jew by the
name of Herschel Grynszpan shot Ernst vom Rath, a
German Embassy official, in Paris. He died two
days later from the wounds. Afterwards a severe
pogrom was launched throughout Germany and
occupied-Austria. Nazi leaders had gathered that
evening in Munich to celebrate the anniversary of
the Abortive Beer Hall Putsch of 1923. Joseph
Goebbels told them that Adolf Hitler had decided
that if anti Jewish riots spread spontaneously
throughout the Reich, they were not to be
discouraged. The Nazis were not allowed to appear
as the architect of the riots but was to organize
and execute them. The riots then spread at very
high speeds.
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The Nazis estimated that 267 synagogues were
burned and 76 of them were completely destroyed.
815 Jewish shops and 29 warehouses were also
destroyed and 171 homes burned down. 91 Jewish
citizens were killed. Kristallnacht is considered
to mark the beginning of the end of European
Jewry. It sent waves of shock through the western
world and alerted many for the first time to the
evils of the Nazi regime. It led some countries
in Western Europe to admit more refugees,
especially children. Since the end of World War
II, that day is remembered in synagogues and
churches all over Germany.
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ERNST VON RATH
My fifth source was a book titled The Holocaust
Overview by Ann Byers. I found this book in the
school library. The information from this source
may be same but with different statistics and
numbers. It says that the reason for the event
was the assassination of Ernst von Rath, a German
official.
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Herschel Grynszpan, a seventeen-year-old Jew,
carried out the act. While he was a Student in
France his family was harshly forced from Germany
back to their native country of Poland. This
source told me that Grynszpans father is the one
that sent him the postcard describing the
familys painstaking ordeal. After receiving the
postcard Grynszpan marched to the German Embassy
in Paris and shot vom Rath (the first German he
found.). This gave Hitler the excuse that he
needed to act.
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On the evening of November 9 1938, men of the SS,
Storm Troops and Gastapo dressed as normal
civilians and spilled through the streets of
Germany with axes, hammers, crowbars, clubs, and
firebombs. They smashed and destroyed windows and
walls of Jewish shops and homes. They threw the
contents that were inside the buildings into the
streets that were littered with glass and broken
belongings. They took anything that was valuable
and not broken. They broke into synagogues,
defiled the holy books and articles inside, and
then set the buildings ablaze. They removed
Jewish families from their homes and brutally
attacked and beat them, leaving them for dead.
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STATISTICS
When Kristallnacht was over 1,300 synagogues and
171 homes had been burned, 76 synagogues were
completely destroyed and nothing had been able to
be salvaged. 7,500 shops had been looted, 96 Jews
were reported dead and 36 seriously injured. At
least 30,000 Jews had been sent to concentration
camps.
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My sixth source was the website
Kristallnacht-The Night of Broken Glass. As
you may know by now some of the information may
be the same information that is presented by the
other sources and some of the facts might not be
the same. Kristallnacht was a night of violence
aimed at the Jewish community. The shooting of
German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel
Grynszpan, a Polish-Jewish student gave Hitler
his reason for attack. The pogrom lasted two days
and one night.
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The news of vom Raths death had reached Hitler
in Munich where he was celebrating the
anniversary of his abortive 1923 Beer Putsch.
After speaking with him Hitlers Propaganda
minister (Dr.) Joseph Goebbels appointed a
meeting of Storm Troopers urging them to stage
violent acts upon the Jews. To the Jews these
acts were to appear as spontaneous
demonstrations. Phone calls from Munich set of
the pogroms throughout Germany and Austria.
30,000 wealthy Jews were sent to concentration
camps and only released if they agreed to leave
the country and turn over all their money to the
Reich.
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My seventh source was the website (Kristallnacht
Night of Broken Glass). It gave me some
information that the other sources did not. On
November 9 and 10 1938, the Nazis planned an
attack on the Jews. The Nazi governor of Austria
ordered that every Jews house be thoroughly
searched. Thousands of Jews were arrested and six
hundred were sent to Dachau. In Vienna, dozens of
synagogues were destroyed, and 12,000 Jewish
workshops and 5,000 Jewish shops were rummaged
through and closed. Vienna presented an
extraordinary spectacle with fires raging all
over the city and Jews being hustled along the
streets, cursed at and assaulted by crowds of
hooligans, The British Consul in Vienna reported
this. In Hitlers hometown of Linz all Jewish
inhabitants were arrested and ordered to move to
Vienna within three days.
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After Kristallnacht, it became clearer that Jews
could no longer survive in Austria. After
November 15, Jewish children were banned from
school. By the end of the month a curfew was in
effect and Jews were denied access into most
public places. All remaining Jewish properties
and businesses had been confiscated by the Nazis.
Consul General Feng Shan Ho saved his Jewish
friends and because of this was sent to a
concentration camp. He along with his family
received a visa and was able to leave the camp
and start a new life in Shangshai, China.
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My eighth source was a website for Holocaust
Studies. It gave me information that I was not
aware of and changed the name of the boy who
assassinated the German Embassy official. Many
Jews who had originated from Poland came to
Germany because conditions were much worse in
Poland. The Germans however were also trying to
get rid of their Jews. The Germans saw the Jews
as an easy group to bully and get rid of. On one
cold night in the fall of 1938 the Jews were
rounded up in a herd and beaten across the
border. 12,000 to 17,000 Polish-Jews (who werent
considered Poles anymore) found themselves in a
small border town with a population of 6,000
Poles.
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There was no room for them so they stuck them in
military stables under filthy living conditions.
They had not eaten in days! Two of these Jews had
a son named Henry Gryszpan that was currently
living in Paris. He was so upset with what was
happening to the Jews in Germany that he felt
that he needed to do something to make it known
worldwide. He got a gun and shot Ernst Von Rath.
Von Rath was the first person that he seen when
he walked into the German Embassy. Von Rath died
from the wounds. This gave way to the
spontaneous uprise of ahte towards the Jews. In
just one night 1,350 synagogues were burned and
destroyed, over 91 Jews were killed, 30,000 were
sent to concentration camps, 7,000 Jewish
businesses were destroyed and thousands of Jewish
homes ransacked. Germany didnt produce plate
glass at the time that Kristallnacht occurred so
it to Belgium around six months to replace the
windows that were shattered.
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Citation Page
"Dora Mittelbau." Holocaust Encyclopedia 2 Mar.
2007 . Schmidt, .
Personal interview. 2 Mar. 2007. Walden,
Geoffrey R."Mittelwerk V-1/ V-2 Rocket Factory,
Nordhausen Dora Concentration Camp Site." Third
Reich in Ruins.20 July 2000. 2 Mar.
2007 .
Walden, geoffrey R. The Mittlewerk/Mittelbau/Cam
p Dora Mittelbau Gmbh- Mittelbau KZ. 20 July
2000. 2 Mar. 2007
/chapters/mittel.html. "Nordhausen(Dora-Mittelba
u)." Jewish Virtual Library.2 Jewish Virtual
Library. 1
library.org/jsource/Holocaust/Nordhausen.html.