killerblau

Never forget, never forgive! 

On the night of November 9, 1938, violence against Jews broke out across Nazi Germany. It appeared to be unplanned, set off by Germans’ anger over the assassination of German embassy official Ernst vom Rath in Paris at the hands of Jewish teenager Herschel Grynszpan in revenge for the deportation of his family members who were living in Germany. 

In fact, German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and other Nazis carefully organized the pogroms. In two days, over 250 synagogues were burned, over 7,000 Jewish businesses were trashed and looted, dozens of Jewish people were killed, and Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, schools, and homes were looted while police and fire brigades stood by. The pogroms became known as Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass,” for the shattered glass from the store windows that littered the streets.