Night of Pogroms

Generated on 2015-05-09 18:38 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.
39015022195989
Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-google
GRAD
DS
135
.G33
N68
1988
|fIGHT OF POGROMS
"KRISTALLNACHT"
NOVEMBER 9
1Q. 1938
"/ myself could scarcely believe that such things

"
could occur iu a twentieth century civilization.
franklin Delano Roosevelt
President
of the United States
Generated on 2015-05-09 18:40 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015022195989

November
U.S. Holocaust
Memorial
15. 1938
Council/ 2000 L Street. N.W., Suite 588. Washington.
D.C.
5~
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In the compilation of a packet of this kind, many people

contribute their skills.
We especially wish to thank
Professor Raul Hilberg, preeminent Holocaust scholar and Member
of the Archives and Museum Content Committees of the U.S.
Holocaust Memorial Council; Robert Wolfe, Specialist for Captured
German Records at the National Archives, and Member of the
Archives and International Relations Committees of the Council;
and Norbert Wollheim, Kr istallnacht eyewitness and Member of the
International Relations Committee of the Council.
also wish to thank the members of the staff of the
States Holocaust Memorial Council, particularly Michael
Berenbaum, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Acting
Project Director; Brewster Chamberlin, Director of Archives;
Sybil Milton, Research Curator for the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum; Isaiah Kuperstein, Director of Education; Steve
Goodell, Expert Consultant; and Marian Craig, Director, Days of
Remembrance.
Our special thanks are expressed to Ruth Dickens,
Assistant to the Director of Days of Remembrance, and Rosemarie
Carey, Executive Secretary to the Director of the Council, for
their patient and efficient preparation of these manuscripts.
We
United

Our thanks to the authors and publishers who granted

permission to reprint excerpts from their publications.
us
_ t- * *
C s
CONTENTS
Letter from Harvey
Memorial Council,
Council's
Message
Days
of
from James
M. Meyerhoff, Chairman, U.S. Holocaust

and Benjamin Meed, Chairman of the
Committee
Remembrance
I.
Freed
- Eyewitness to "Kr istallnacht"
Architect for the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum
How
;
7
to Use the Booklet
Background
the
on
Night of Pogroms
Documents
11
15
Nazi Paperwork on Re ichskr istallnacht

Dispatches from American Diplomats...
Eyewitness Accounts
Responses Selected from the Print, Media and the
Literature

17
32
35
47
Suggested Program Ideas For Schools

and Community Observances
71
Study Aids
77
Highlights of Events, March 13, 1938 through

January 30, 1939
Photograph of Burning Wiesbaden Synagogue, Germany
Map of the Destruction of the Synagogues,
9
November
1938
82
Resources
83
Sources of Additional Information and/or Materials

Bibliography
Selected List of Films on the Holocaust
List of U.S.
78
80
Holocaust
Memorial Council Members
84
94
96
102
United States Holocaust Memorial Council
Dear
Friend:
November
9-10 marks the anniversary of the Night of Pogroms
It was
in Nazi Germany, Austria and the occupied Sudetenland.
during that night in 1938 that well organized violence erupted
when SS, SA and Nazi stormtrooper s disguised in plain clothes
burst into the synagogues, shops and homes of Jews, violating
their rights of security. Lives were lost, but, more
importantly, a dynamic culture and unique way of life was
For over a thousand years, the People of the Book had
shattered.
lived and worked and contributed to the intellectual, scientific
They nurtured their
and cultural inheritance of these lands.
families, built homes, created great schools of learning.
But,
in the Third Reich, where bigotry was the government's
philosophic cornerstone, this rich culture was vilified,
condemned
and destroyed.
"Kr istallnacht
significant
"
as
it
the

unleashed to destroy
The violence enacted on the
major step toward the Nazis'
was
question
was dubbed
"
by the German
public,
was
In a world proud of its

event.
potent evil of prejudice prevailed;
people and to alter human conscience.
night of November 9-10, 1938, was a
"final solution of the Jewish
twentieth-century
civilizations,
advanced
it
still
in the twentieth century and here in the United

important to study the lessons of this great
History teaches us that to forget is to risk
repetition. We know you share our conviction that hope for an
enlightened future lies in the careful study of the past.
Now,
States,
tragedy.
it is
Please join the members of the United States Holocaust

Memorial Council in remembering the Night of Pogroms.
Sincerely,
Chairman, U.S. Holocaust

Memorial Council
2000
Street
NW, Suite
Remembrance
588, Washington,
D.C.
20036-4907,
Committee
(202) 653-9220
James Inoo Freed
Eyewitness to Kristallnacht
Archictect of the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum
In
mother,
born.
seemed
things
denied
father
for example,
we
could
no
longer enter
public park.
Early in the day of
November 9, my father received a warning

would be wiser for him and me not to go home that night.
was assumed that my mother and 3-year-old sister would remain
that
It
1938, I was 8 1/2 years old, living with my

and baby sister in Essen, Germany, where I was
My family and I already had experienced what, to a child,
Simple
unrelated events. I could not understand them.
which children normally take for granted were mysteriously
November
it
and be
safe there.
my father and I boarded first one street car,

another, riding endlessly throughout the night. Twice
our journey took us past the main synagogue of Essen which was in
flames. I asked my father why it was burning, but he reminded me
Although we remained unharmed that night, for the
not to speak.
first time, I realized the world we had known the world of my
parents and grandparents was not going to be my world.
In the evening

and then
My
sister
and
I left
Germany
in early
1939
for France,
and,
from Paris on a children's refugee train, traveled on to

We came to the United States at the end of 1939;
Switzerland.
Although my immediate
our parents followed us in late 1940.
family escaped, most of my mother's family perished in the
Holocaust
We set about making our home in Chicago.

It is not entirely
surprising that in this new world a child 9 or 10 years old would
And, as one grows up
chose to suppress frightening memories.
daily
the
in
one's immediate
events
energy is focused upon
surroundings.
I did not forget my past. I simply did not think
about it, as I did not think about many of the things that might
to us then.
But two years ago when I was asked to
the Architect for the National Holocaust Memorial Museum,
I knew that I would have to remember. And more, I would have to
learn about matters that I had deliberately chosen to repress.
In retrospect, this former attitude of mine, not altogether
unique, seems to be a strong argument for the need for the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
have happened
become
During the past two years, I have immersed myself in the

history of the Holocaust, speaking to survivors, visiting
concentration and death camp remains, and the sites of destroyed
I have come to believe that memory must be

and that this living memory must be transmitted to
Further, I
those who have not personally had such experiences.
have come to the conclusion that this Memorial Museum needs to
needs to have visual and
speak to more than the mind
Indeed, I believe that one must spiritually
visceral impact.
leave the normal world one knows and enter into another time,
into other space. One must become physically and morally
receptive through a structure that can be read on the outside but
only experienced on the inside, an architectural means to prepare
communities.
awakened,
it
for the singularly unbelievable but horribly true story of the

Holocaust
How
to Use The Booklet
to offer this collection of materials on

"Kristallnacht " ) to encourage all Americans to
the tragic event and learn its lessons.
are pleased
We
Night of Pogroms
remember
This booklet is not intended for the Holocaust scholar or

but rather is for the student or lay
person who seeks to understand this event and its historical
significance.
It is not a definitive or an extensive study; new
information is coming to light through continuing research. The
materials contained herein merely suggest the wealth of
professional historian,
interpretative literature
and documents available on

have chosen pieces which should provide
material for a variety of commemorative observances . Educators
should find this booklet useful as they prepare lesson plans and
an aid in developing book
study units; librarians should find
exhibits and film programs.
"Kristallnacht."
We
it

A brief historical background to the event orients the user

to the salient facts of what transpired.
The documents that
follow describe not only the official actions taken by the Nazi
Government,
but also the response of U.S. diplomats in Germany.
Eyewitness accounts of victims and the reactions of those who
heard about the event in the United States politicians,
educators, religious leaders, among others -- are also included.
The
community
booklet contains
some
suggestions
for school
and
activities. We have included study aids to help users

appreciate the historical context and to identify the affected
geographical locations.
Finally, in order to stimulate
knowledge about "Kristallnacht,"
the pursuit of additional
included a brief
bibliography and filmography. These should help the user in a
search of local library holdings.
Also included is a list of
Holocaust resource centers in the United States which may have
more information and materials.
we have
There are many lessons to be derived from the study of
this dark period in twentieth-century history. We hope the

reader will be inspired to pursue more knowledge about the event,
to reflect upon its significance, and to remember and commemorate
the Night of Pogroms
Background on the Night of Pogroms
silence not a sound to be heard in the town. The

in the street, the lights in the shops and in the
It is 3:30 a.m. All of a sudden noises in
houses are out.
the street break into my sleep, a wild medley of shouts and
shrieks. I listen, frightened and alarmed, until I
distinguish words : Get out , Jews ! Death to the Jews ! " *
"Dead
lamps
With methodical precision during the night of Wednesday,

November 9th, and early morning of Thursday, November 10th, 1938,
SA, SS and Nazi stormtroopers , disguised in plain clothes,
assembled in pre-arranged meeting places and fanned out to
selected targets in the Jewish communities of Germany, Austria
Following
and the occupied Sudetenland (the Third Reich).
Gestapo instructions, these Nazi agents axed windows, demolished
furnishings, wrecked houses, smashed store fronts, ravaged
merchandise, torched synagogues, and arrested thousands of Jews.
As the well coordinated destruction took place, most "neighbors"

just watched.
By Friday morning, November 11, nearly 100 Jews were dead,

7,500 Jewish businesses had been destroyed, 275 synagogues had
been razed or burned, and 30,000 Jews had been arrested, the
majority of whom were sent to the German concentration camps of
Dachau, Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald.
Carpets of crushed glass
and debris covered the streets in the towns and cities of the
Third Reich.
public labeled this event "Kristallnacht
or the
Night of Broken Glass.
dubbed it
Some American newspapers
"Black Thursday," while others, comparing the destruction with
the physical attacks against Jews in Czarist Russia, called it
the Night of Pogroms.
The German
"
Within days of the event, Hermann Goering, Reich Minister of

the Four-Year Plan, issued the Decree Eliminating the Jews from
German Economic Life.
A 25 percent "flight" (thousands of Jews,
in response to "Kristallnacht," began seeking refuge in other
countries) tax on all Jewish property being removed from German
territory and, in a perverse maneuver, levied a fine of one
*Bentwich, Norman.
"Kristallnacht:
Pogrom in Emden."
Jewish
Youth Comes Home .
In: Eisenberg, Azriel. Witness to the
Holocaust
New
York: The Pilgrim Press,
11
1981,
page 84.
billion
marks ($400 million) on the Jewish communities to

Goering
compensate for the damages wrought by the Nazis.
transferring
businesses
by
remaining
Jewish
expropriated
their ownership to "Aryan" hands. Thus, surviving Jews were not
only robbed and assaulted, but they were made to absorb the cost
of destroyed property belonging to them without any means of
income .
all
Thousands packed
Panic pervaded the Jewish communities.
Western European and American consulates pleading for exit visas.
Only a small percentage managed to escape, since the total
requests far exceeded the stringent immigration rules and
regulations established by such countries as France, Great
Britain, the United States, Canada and others. In desperation,
A few thousand others managed to
some Jews committed suicide.
Palestine, South
emigrate to Shanghai (China), British-controlled
America, South Africa and Australia.
Of approximately 560,000
Jews remaining in the Reich at the time of "Kristallnacht , " a
group representing barely one percent of the total population,
about 160,000 were able to get out (nearly one out of every
three
. )
"Kristallnacht" marked the intensification of a 5-year antiSemitic program initiated by Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of
Between January
Germany, soon after he assumed power in 1933.
30, 1933, and November 9, 1938, through a series of laws, Jews
civil
rights within the

had been systematically denied their
community and gradually deprived of the right to gainful
The violent physical violations of November 9-10
employment.
were the
attacks on Jews to go beyond the borders of
Germany, affecting incorporated Austria and the newly occupied
German

first
Sudetenland
These events were widely reported in the United States

News stories filled the front pages of papers and close
media.
Americans reacted
to a thousand editorials were printed.
initially with outrage. Offers of humanitarian relief spanned
the entire political, religious and social spectrum of U.S.
society. The local and national press and radio echoed the
ordinary citizen's empathy; pledges streamed from parishes,
congregations and school districts to adopt and shelter Jewish
families
and
their children.
Calls for
an economic
and
political
boycott of Nazi Germany poured into Washington from trade unions,

civic associations, parent-teacher associations as well as from
leaders of both political parties.
President Franklin
On Tuesday, the 15th of November,
Roosevelt announced the recall of Hugh Wilson, the U.S.
Ambassador to Germany, and issued a special press release
expressing shock and dismay. Notwithstanding the public outcry,
the Department of State decided not to alter U.S. immigration
laws
.
I
i
12
The events
of November 9-10 were
significant
advancement
of the Nazis' "final solution of the Jewish question." Within

two months following "Kristallnacht , " Hitler, in a major address
to the German Parliament, promised the destruction of the Jewish
Thus, the Jews

people throughout Europe should there be war.
were inexorably consigned to the Nazis' Kingdom of Night.
Under what pretext had the Nazis unleased such blatant
In Paris,
France, on Monday, November 7, 1938, Herschel Grynszpan, a
teenage immigrant Jew, shot Ernst vom Rath, the Third Secretary
criminal violence against the Jews at this time?

in the
German
Embassy
in Paris.
Grynszpan was protesting the
Nazi Government's forced expulsion of his family from Germany

back to Poland as part of the Nazis' anti-Jewish policy (known as
the Zbaszyn
Incident).
Following on the news of vom Rath's death at 4:00 p.m. on

November 9, what purported to be "spontaneous" attacks on Jews,
synagogues, and other Jewish property broke out throughout the
Third Reich. These were surreptitiously organized by local Nazi
Party officials, instigated by the anti-Semitic Reich Propaganda
Leader, Dr. Josef Goebbels.
The actions were carried out by SA
As
and SS men in plain clothes, as well as other Party members.
the depredations spread, and murder and mayhem were mingled with
arson against synagogues and Jewish-owned stores and shops,
uniformed police cordoned off the areas and did not interfere
with the ongoing handiwork of the perpetrators . Firemen stood by

only to prevent the spread of the raging fires to Aryan property.

Meanwhile, the Gestapo carried out their orders to arrest 20,000
to 30,000 preferably affluent Jews. The rampage continued
unabated all that night and well into the next morning.
The Nazis attempted to camouflage their viciousness under
the cloak of vindication, but the world decried these acts as
barbarism. The tremor of protest over "Kristallnacht" soon
passed, however.
As for the 17-year-old Herschel Grynszpan, for over a year
the French developed elaborate plans to bring him to trial . The
proceedings were never initiated.
He fell into the hands of the
Nazis after their occupation of France.
Dr. Josef Goebbels was
to have staged a showcase trial, but again the plans were never
carried out. No records have emerged since the war disclosing
conclusive evidence of this young man's fate.
Fifty years later, why should we commemorate this event?

Americans should remember the tragedy of "Kristallnacht" as an
event which demonstrates the need for national resolve to respond
to government-sponsored persecution anywhere in the world .
Remembrance also calls for national rededication to the
principles of tolerance and freedom of choice which form the very
foundation of our democratic society.
13
"...Anyone who closes his eyes to the past is blind to

present. Whoever refuses to remember ... is prone to
We must erect a memorial
new risks of infection....
to
thoughts and feelings in our own hearts."
the
Excerpt
Germany,
from
speech by the President of the Federal Republic

von Weizsacker, May 8, 1985, on the 42nd
the conclusion of World War
Richard
anniversary of
II.
"Seeking to forget makes exile all the longer.

secret of redemption lies in remembrance."
Jewish

NOTES:
Wisdom
of
[Baal
Shem
Tov
(ca.
The
1700-1760)].
Please see "Highlights of Events, March 17, 1938 through

January 30, 1939" in this booklet for a chronological
sequence of events.
References
was drawn
from which the material in this "Background"

are listed in the "Bibliography."
14

15
Nazi Paperwork on Reichskristallnacht

Robert Wolfe
National Archives
The so-called Reichskristallnacht (Reich Crystal Night), the
November 9-10, 1938, destruction of synagogues and other Jewish
property accompanied by arrest and murder of Jews throughout the
Greater German Reich, was not, as the Nazis asserted, a
spontaneous expression of public outrage over the assassination

It was the first
of a German diplomat by a young Polish Jew.
organized mass attack on Jews in Nazi Germany, although many
individual Jews had been attacked and even killed since the Nazi
"seizure of power" on January 30, 1933.
were three "nights of broken glass"; on

8-9, as well as November 9-10.
Shortly after
the first radio reports of the shooting of vom Rath on the
afternoon of November 7 , pogroms led by plain-clothes SA and SS
men and other local Nazi party members erupted in the city of
Kassel and a few lesser localities, ending by 10:00 p.m. thfft
evening.
On the following night, November 8-9, as vom Rath lay
dying, sporadic pogroms broke out in more than a dozen other
(mainly Hessian) localities.
These latter actions were abruptly
terminated by telephone calls on the morning of November 9 from
the Gauleiter in Kassel to his Kurhessen county leaders,
confirmed in writing by the following order:
Actually, there

November 7-8 and
All anti
Jewish demonstrations are to cease

immediately.
County leaders are fully responsible to
the Gauleiter for carrying out this order.
Further
instructions will follow.
[signed] Solbrig, SA-Brigade
Leader
cited in Wolfgang
"Die Pogrome vom 7-10 November, 1938," in
Volksgemeinschaf t, Volksfeinde, Kassel 1933-1945. Vol.
Fuldabrueck 1: Verlag Druckerei Hesse Gmblt, 1987, pages 193[Hauptstaapsarchiv Wiesbaden, #423/2948,
Printz,
198.
II.
trial
Whether premature or
pogroms were suspiciously
balloon,
similar in
all
tolerance to the organized nationwide
of these forerunner
spontaniety and police
pogrom of November 9-10.
sham
Facsimiles reproduced in the following pages, or

translations included here, are of captured Nazi documents placed
in evidence before the Nuernberg International Military Tribunal
17
which expose the Nazi leaders as the instigators of the pogroms,

and unmask their transparent attempts to cover up their
complicity. The original documents are in the National Archives
War Crimes Records, Record Group 238.
Collection of World War
II
Reinhard Heydrich, Chief of Security

(whose office acknowledged on
November 15 that the "General Field Marshal has been informed.
No steps are to be taken" ) :
On
November 11,
1938,
Police, reported to Goering

In numerous cities looting of Jewish shops and

businesses has occurred. . . . The reported figures:
815 shops destroyed, 29 department stores set afire or
otherwise destroyed, 171 dwellings set on fire or
destroyed, give. . .only part of the real
destruction
[and] may exceed that many times
over. Of synagogues, 191 were set afire, a further 76
Further, 11 community centers,
were fully demolished.
cemetery chapels and such were set afire and 3 others
fully destroyed. Arrested were around 20,000 Jews,
further 7 Aryans and 3 foreigners. . . .reported were
The dead
36 deaths, as well as 36 critically injured.
[Nuernberg Document 3058 PS]
and/or injured are Jews.
[Facsimile of original, Document #1 following this
report . ]
This matter-of-fact report minimizes the true story. The
police not only failed to intervene against the "spontaneous"
anti-Semitic outbreak, they knew it was coming but did not
This is clear from the following Heydrich telegram
prevent it.
(translation below) to all police units (facsimile of original
German document,
Document #2 following this report) entitled
"Measures Against the Jews Tonight" sent at 1:20 a.m.,

10 from Munich (where Nazi leaders were attending the
annual gathering commemorating the failed "Beer Hall Putsch" of
November
1923)
Because of the assassination of Legation Secretary vom

Rath in Paris, demonstrations must be expected tonight
November 9 to 10, 1938 throughout the Reich. The
following orders are issued for dealing with these
events .
1)
Upon
receipt of this telegram, the chiefs of the

[Gestapo] stations or their deputies
political police
must immediately
contact the appropriate
political
authorities for their district [Nazi Party regional or

local administration - Gauleitung or Kreisleitung] by
telephone to arrange a discussion of the carrying out of

the demonstrations discussions which should include
the competent inspector or commander of the uniformed
police [ Ordnungspolizei ] . During this conference the
political authorities are to be informed that the German
police have received the following orders from the
18
Reichsfuhrer SS and Chief of the German Police to which

the actions of the political authorities should be
correspondingly adjusted:
a)
Only such actions may be carried out which do not

threaten German lives or property (e.g., burning of
synagogues
only
the surroundings
b)
d)
there is no threat of
fire
to
) .
Stores and residences of Jews may only be destroyed

The police are instructed to
but not looted.
supervise compliance with this order and arrest
looters
c)
when
Special care is to be taken in business streets to

provide absolute protection against damage to nonJewish stores.
Foreign citizens, even
be molested.
if
they are Jewish,
may
not

Provided that the guidelines enumerated in paragraph 1 )

are followed, demonstrations in progress should not be
prevented by the police but only supervised for
compliance with the guidelines .
Immediately upon receipt of this telegram, existing
archival material is to be impounded by the police in
all synagogues and offices of the Jewish communities
Centers [Kultusgemeinden] to prevent its destruction in
the course of the demonstrations. This refers to
available historical material and not to more recent tax
lists, etc. The archival material is to be turned over
to the competent offices of the SD.
direction of Security Police [both political and

criminal divisions] operations relating to the antiJewish demonstrations resides with political police
authorities except when orders are issued by security
police inspectors.
Officials from the criminal police
as well as members of the Security Service (SD), of the
SS para-military units [Verf uegungstruppe : forerunner of
Waffen SS], and of the general SS may be called upon to
carry out security police operations .
The
of events during this night allows

the assigned police officers to be used for this
purpose, as many Jews particularly affluent Jews are
As soon as the course
to be arrested in all districts as can be accommodated

in existing detention facilities.
For the time being
only healthy male Jews, whose age is not too advanced,
are to be arrested.
Immediately after the arrests have
been carried out, the appropriate concentration camps
should be contacted to place the Jews into camps as
19
quickly as possible. Special care should be taken that

Jews arrested on the basis of this order are not
mistreated
6)
The contents of this order are to be passed on to the

competent inspectors and commanders of the uniformed
police and to regional and local divisions of the SD
with the addendum that the Reichs fuehrer SS and Chief of
The
the German Police has ordered this police action.
chief of the uniformed police has issued corresponding
orders to the uniformed police including the fire

brigades.
Close coordination is to be maintained
between
the security police and the uniformed police
during the execution of the ordered actions

Receipt of this telegram is to be confirmed by
political
police chiefs or their deputies by telegram addressed to the

Political Police Central Office [Gestapo], for the attention
of SS-Colonel
Standartenf uehrer
Mueller.
signed: Heydrich
SS-Major General
[3051
report
PS]
[Facsimile
SS-Gruppenf uehrer
of original, Document
#2
following this
. ]
This telegram had been preceded by one sent from Berlin at

minutes to midnight on November 9 (one hour and 25 minutes
before), presumably on Heydrich 's instructions, to all security
police stations and units by Gestapo chief Heinrich Mueller:
"In
shortest order, actions against Jews and especially their
These are not to
synagogues will take place in all of Germany.
Preparations are to be made for the
be interfered with. . . .
arrest of 20-30,000 Jews in the Reich. Primarily propertied Jews
are to be selected.
.
.
.Addendum
for Cologne Gestapo:
Especially important material is to be found in the Cologne
Synagogue."
[374 PS]

If the police become lawbreakers, the judiciary ought to

intervene, but a follow-up Heydrich telegram of November 10
reads:
"The Reich Ministry of Justice has instructed public
prosecutors not to procede with any investigation of the actions
against Jews." Notwithstanding this promised abdication of
judicial responsibility, some state prosecutors were
investigating the lack of "compliance with [Heydrich' s]
instruction. . .not to endanger German life or property. . .
[when] synagogues are burned. . .no plundering. . .[when] Jewish
businesses and homes are destroyed."
[3051 PS]
So the Nazi Supreme Party Court intervened because, "as a
matter of principle,
must be impossible that political
only from the viewpoint of the
offenses. . .which,
perpetrator, are willed as extra-legal measures by the Party,
it
if
20
should be investigated and judged by ordinary criminal

courts. . . . The Supreme Party Court has reserved for itself
tbie investigation of killings, severe mistreatment and moral
cirimes . "
[3063 PS]
[Facsimile of original, Document #3,
page only of three pages, following this report.]
This report of
to try
18
SA and
a Special Panel [Senat] of

SS men, and 5 Party members
local office holders,
accused of looting,
first
the Court set up
including four
and murder during

the pogroms of Kristallnacht , was transmitted from Munich on
February 13, 1939, by Walter Buch, Chief Justice of the Supreme
Party Court, and acknowledged by Goering on February 22. Except
for four men charged with looting or "racial shame" committed
against two Jewish women, one only thirteen years old, the panel
recommended that Hitler forestall trials in the regular courts by
decreeing light suspended sentences for two SA men involved in
the killing of two Jews (one a 16 year-old male), and dismissal
of charges for 24 men involved in the deaths of 21 Jews
(including four women) and the injury of three. The
justification for dismissal of charges or suspension of sentences
was that these murders were committed "on higher orders."
rape,
Special Panel report states that, on the evening of

get-together of Party leaders in Munich,
9 at the annual
against Jewish businesses
announced
that
outbreaks
Goebbels
already underway in Party Districts Kurhessen and MagdeburgAnhalt were, by Der Fuehrer's decision, "neither to be prepared
or organized, but spontaneous outbreaks were not to be
hindered. . . . These oral instructions were understood by all
Party leaders on hand to mean that the Party should not appear
outwardly to instigate the demonstrations, but in actuality
should organize and carry them out to avenge vom Rath." Most of
those present telegraphed instructions accordingly to their own
Party districts.
[3063 PS]

The
November
The commander of SA Brigade 50 ( Starkenburg ) , for example,

from Darmstadt on November 11 on actions taken by his
reporting
against 35 synagogues, rather indiscreetly (or to

stated that he had received the following order on
November 10 at 3 a.m.:
"On order of the Group Leader, all Jewish
synagogues in the [area of] Brigade 50 are to be blown up or set
afire. Neighboring houses occupied by Aryans are not to be
The action is to be carried out in civilian clothing."
damaged.
[1721 PS]
[Facsimile of original, Document #4 following this
report . ]
five regiments
cover himself)
The Supreme Party Court ruled

quashed because the murders were:
that the charges were to be
order. . .presumed order. . .or without orders

for Jews, or. . .a decision suddenly formed in
An order shifts the responsibility from
its executor to the order-giver. . .a misunderstanding arose
in some link of the chain of command, especially
committed
by
...
out of hatred
excitement.
21
.
.as a matter of course, in the days of Party
struggle [before coming to power in January 1933]. . .in
actions where the Party did not wish to appear as the
organizer, orders were not given with full clarity. . . .
[On November 9-10, 1938] subordinate leaders understood some
unfortunately-phrased oral or telephone orders. . .to mean
that Jewish blood would now have to flow; at any rate, the
leadership did not attach importance to the life of a Jew.
In the time of struggle, it may have been necessary in some
cases, in order to achieve political success without giving
the [Weimar] state the possibility of proving that the Nazi
Party was the instigator.
This viewpoint is no longer
necessary. The public, unto the last person, knows that
actions like that of November 9 were organized and carried
out by the Party.
When in one night all synagogues burn
because.
down,
it
must have been organized
in
some way,
which could
only be done by the Party.

But the soldier should never be
put in the position of having to ponder the real intention
of his commander, whether the order really means what it
says. . .[otherwise] the Nazi concept of discipline and
responsibility will be undermined. . . . When toward 2 a.m.

on November 10, 1938, the
case of the killing of a
Jew. . .was reported to Reich Propaganda Leader Dr.
first
the opinion was expressed that something would

to be done in order to prevent the entire action taking
a dangerous turn.
According to the testimony of the deputy
district leader [ stellvertrenden Gauleiter] of Munich-Upper
Bavaria, Dr. Goebbels replied, in essence, that his
informant should not get excited about one dead Jew; that in
the next days thousands of Jews will have to die.
[3063 PS]
Goebbels,

have
It
of Hitler,
"only
correctly that each
semantics
henchmen were
last
time that thousands even

be the victims of the extravagant
Goebbels, and other Nazi leaders, whose
following orders," and assuming quite
"order really means what
says."
would not be the
millions of Jews would
it
22
DOCUMENT
TJet Chef tier Sjidiertieitspolijei
II
5 4
BtttinSmil.
oen
# 1
li^.iêcber
1gj.8.
Jhbg*|ilbtcd|t-Stra0c8
9716/33 g
f cnfpu^tc:
P 2 flora 0040
SriitiEHbricf
An
Goring
uinisterpr&sidenten
Generalf eldmarschall
z.Ed. von iiinisterialdirektcr Dr. Gritzbach
den Herrn
Berlin
"^"8.
leipziger otr.
retr
. : Auction
die Juden.
gegen
Die "bis jetzt *ir.ge::;.ngeneii -eldungen dar ataats-7
poliseistellen
haben
bis
folgendes Ge-
zue 11 -11.1938
santbild ergeben :Generated on 2015-05-09 18:48 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015022195989

In zahlreichen 3tii.it en
j lidi seller
sicii Pliinderur-gen
haban
laden und Geschaf tshiiuser ereignet .
ua v?eitere Ilunderungen zu varuaiden,

sciiaxf durcngegriffen.
174-
Tfei-en
rlLinderns
Is
r/urde,
in alien Fallen
wurden dabei
lexsonsn festgenoa\.xen.
-
Bar- Hsfan^
TTohniorgen
jiidischer Geschaf te
dar Zerstomngen
lasst sich bisher zii"f ernriisslg noch nicht be-
legen. Die in den fieri cht en auf cefolxrten

z erst "irt
Geschilfte,
aerator te Y..arenhauser
storte
and
.Vohnhauser
legungon lutndelt,
in
23
.
171
geb ?n,
nur
23
Brand gestec*:te
315
oier sons*
"in Brand ge set zie cier zersov;eit as sich nicht"- ttz Brar.d-
-.ine::
dea Z^r3torungn -.vi.î-j-.
Zif f eâ:
_eil
"Tegen
dar
d.v:
..irhlich v-.riieân-
Jri.- -lioh<ai: i it
DOCTMENT
3erichterstatt"urg
Ueldur.ên
che" oder
- ~
#1
sicii die bisher eirêgaarenen
mussten
lediglich auf all&eneir.ore Anga"oen, nie "zahlrsi"die meisten Gaschafte zarstcrt", beschrenlcen.
Die angee-ebenea Ziffern diirften daher un 3in
Vielf aches
iiberstiegen werden.
An Synagogentwurder.
76
191
in
vollstiindig deaoli-rt. Ferner
Friedhofslapellen
weitere
una
Brand
gesteckt, rei.ere
wurden
11
C-eneindehauser,
d2?gleichen in Brand resetzt und
vollig zerst-Jrt.
Festgenociuen wui"dea rund 20 000 Juden, feraer 7

una
in
Arier
Auslanders. Lex zt ere v/urdsn zur eigenen Sicherheit
Eaft
genoisên.
An 2odesf
geceidet.
alien
v/urden 36, an
Sch~erverletzten ebenfalls J.
Die Getb"teten, bezw. Yerletzten sind Juden. Ein
Jude wird noch vernisst. tinter den getoteten Juden cefia-

det sich ein, unter
d-sr.
Yerletzten
24
polniscb?-
Staatsange
REPRODUCED
FROM HOLDlNGS
Of
l ME NATlONAL
->Dg)P
ARCHlVES
JJ
DOCUMENT
,<+
# 2
AbBchrift dee Blitz-JernB&hreibene
iO.11.38
aue Munohen von
Uhr. 20.
alio
An
Staatepolizeileit
und
Staatspollzeistellen
alle
An
SS <-0berab8chnitte
und SD-Unterabschnitte*
flofort dem Loiter Oder

Stellvertreter vorlegen!
Dringendj
selnem
Betrifffrt
MaGnahmen gegen

heutigen Nacht.
rib
11.1938
Juden In der
Auf grand doe Attentats gegen den Leg.Sekretar
in Parle elnd
im ganzen
im Laufo der heutigen
Eoich
warten?ttr. die Behandlung
Lemons
trat ionen
Nacht
vom
auf 10*
er*
gegen die Juden zu
dleeer Vorgange ergehen die folgenden
Anordnungent
1) Bio Loiter der Staatepolizeistellen odor ihro Stell=
/ vertreter
/
den
haben
eofort nach Eingang dieeee Fernachreibens
fur ihren Bezirk zuet&ndigen politischen Leitungen
leitung" oder firfcieleitung

nehmen und*
- f ernmttndlich
eiltfl Beeprechung
mit
Oau
Yorbindung auf eu
Uber die Durchftthrung der Demon
stratiorien zu vereinbaren, zu der der zuetandige Jnspekteur
oder Kommandeur
der Ordnungspolizei zuzuziehen
ist.Jn
dieeor
REPROOUCED FROM HOLDlNGS OF

#
1HE NATlONAL
ARCH|VES
"JbSl
A*
DOCUMENT
Polizei
die Deutsche
Reichsfuhrer
vom
Polizei die folgenden
denen die Mafinahmen

anzupassen
# 2
1st der politischen Leitung mitzuteilen,dasB
Besprechung
Deutschen
W,
und Chef
Weisungen
erhalten hat,
politischen Leitungen
der
der
zweckmaasig
waren:
a) Es dttrfen nur solche Massnahmen
keine Gefahrdung
sich bringen
deutschen
getroffen werden, die
Lebene Oder Eigentums
z.B. Synagogenbrande
nur,wenn keine
Brandgef ahr fur die Umgebung vorhanden

b) Geschafte und Wohnungen
alt
ist
) ,
von Juden diirfen nur
zeretbrt,
nicht geplvlndert werden. Die Polizei ist angewieeen,die

Durchfuhrung dieser Anordnung zu Uberwachen und PlUn
derer
f e8tzunehmen,
ist
c) Jn Geschaf tsstrassen
das8
besonders darauf zu achten,
nicht jiidische Geachafte unbedingt gegen Schaden

gesichert werden.
d)
Aualandische
Juden aind
Staateangehorige
diirfen
auch wenn aie
nicht belaetigt werden.
2) Unter der VorausBetzung,
Richtlinien eingehalten
dasa die
unter 1) angegebenen
werden, sind die
stattf inênden
.Demonstrationen von der Polizei nicht zu verhindern, son
dern nur auf die Einhaltung der Richtlinien zu Uberwachen.

3)
Sofort nach Eingang dieses Pernechreibens

nagogen und Geechafteraumen
das vorhandene
nahmen,damit
ea
iet in alien
der JUdischen Kultu8gemeinden
Archivmaterial polizeilich zu beechlag

nicht
im Zuge
26
Sy=
der Demonstrationen
zerstbrt
r. 0
ft f *b
iL
national archives
DOCUMENT
wird. Es
kommt
# 2
dabei auf das historisch wertvolle Material
an, nicht auf neuere Steuerlisten
ist
an die zustndigen
SB
usw. Das
Dienststellen
Archivmaterial
abzugeben.
Die Leitung der sicherheitspolizeilichen Massnahmen
sichtlich
.
der Demons-tot ionen gegen Juden
liegt bei
Staatspolizeistellen, soweit nioht die Jnspekteure

Sicherheitspolizei
Weisungen
erteilen.
der sicherheitspolizeilichen Massnahmen
hin
den
der
Zur Durchfhrung
knnen Beamte
der Kriminalpolizei sowie Angehrige des SB, der Verf

gungstruppe und der allgemeinen
Sobald der Ablauf der Ereignisse

Wendung

so
viele Juden
insbesondere wohlha
festzunehmen, als in den vorhandenen
untergebracht
de
dieser Nacht die Ver
der eingesetzten Beamten hierfr zulest , sind
in allen Bezirken
bende
werden.
zugezogen
Haftrumen
werden knnen. Es sind zunchst nur gesun
mnnliche Juden nicht zu hohen Alters festzunehmen.
Nach Durchfhrung der Festnahme

den zustndigen
Unterbringung
ist
ist unverzglich
Konzentrationslagern
wegen
mit
schnellster
der Juden in den Lagern Verbindung aufzu

besonders darauf zu achten, dass die auf
nehmen
Je e
grund
dieser Weisung festgenommenen Juden nicht miss
handelt werden.
Der
Jnhalt dieses Befehls ist
pek teure
und Kommandeure
die SD-Oberabschnitte
geben mit
dem
an die zustndigen
der Ordnungspolizei
27
und an
weiterzu
und SD-Unterabschnitte
Zusatz, dass der Reichsfhrer
Jn
und Chef
A 0H3503
REPRODUCED FROM HOLDlNGS Ot THE NAiiONAL
ARCH|VES
"7
DOCUMENT
der Eeutschen
Pollzai
# 2
diese polizeiliche
Kasanahme
hat fur die Ordnungspolizet
Ber Chef der Ordnungapolizei
eohlieselioh der Petrerlbechpolizei entsprechende
teilt.Jn
angeordnet hat.
Weisungen
der Durchfuhrung der angeordneten Maeenahmen
Einvernehmen
ein
ist
er
engstee
zwisohen der Sicherheitepolizei und der Qrdnungs
polizei zu wahren.
Der Empfang dieses
ist
Fernschreibens
von den
tern oder. deren Stellvertretern durch PS an das

polizeiamt
z.Hd.H-StandartenfUhrer Ifiiller
zu
Geheime
Stapolei
Staats
bestatigen.
gez.Heydrich,

M-Gruppenftihrer.
28
=
=
ED
AT
THE
NATlOWAt ARCHlVES
DOCUMENT
# 3
jOtationalfojkliifdje Beutfdje Arbeiterpartei

^berftes $)tte(geruf)t
&nd)m 33
fmwf so$\t$9$\s,
47
Schn/R,
Indien:
Geheim
loeu
Dm
Geheim
Bericht
ber
die Vorgnge und parteigerichtlichen Verfahren,

die im
mit den antisemitischen Kundgebungen
Zusammenhang

vom 9 November
Am
Abend des 9. November
gandaleiter Pg.Dr.
stehen.
1958
1958
Goebbels
schartsabend im Alten Rathaus
fhrern mit, dass es in
teilte
den
der Reichspropa
zu einem Kamerad
zu Mnchen versammelten
den Gauen
Partei
Kurhessen und Magdeburg-
Anhalt zu judenfeindlichen Kundgebungen
gekommen
sei, dabei
seien jdische Geschfte zertrmmert und Synagogen in Brand

gesteckt
worden Der
entschieden,
weder
Fhrer
habe
auf seinen Vortrag
dass derartige Demonstrationen von der Partei
vorzubereiten noch zu organisieren seien, soweit sie
29
090?
>
<,
mm* m
-/
YB
eddiuo
jd
/
1
9^6l'TI.ot jcqn *qo?*u* qopn apo*8ioj TW :

ji\t msjeg a*p sa*jrn}jnddivx0 PQi vtojo qiWMnri jp
pvîaS 0 Ôil**t ntjoiPDf *9o9mX8 us *9Kxd MfO
i pau8 nx **
aMvmatqag tp * raqosia* 9oiuniipA*g
mmq W|tM
'npHM^m
v*T4**MX*Tijm}jnz a*po utBanMpap/u t*
iQ o*8 <nin a*o|DJ*V*TO P -inapff
9impiMs9nziioA
pa jDMarojii*x*pim%8
oo-iapcroag

aT
5X1
eesvravqoteTg'ipvimuva
SoSbuXs
(ao
(/,
v*pzM ooa jtpi tmjoa
(*x 9o9r.-vig
qojnp porUH 12p*M*s
iq,HO
pnftnw
ipv.x*qi
t tiprac
(*2
(*
TC
qwcup
puMf
Mil
CT
C2
Ui qovqttajjo
Ui 9jnquzaojî-UTXJ
Ui OT8quiS N/
Ui UTeqiqnji
M
M
rt
M
M
Ui ue8xiTTPUrds
Ui
Ui qoqsx9i
rz
C8
Cl
rz
9o9vus
M
M
M
i.Q

rs
nopiejraeg
Ui *p8iqoiH
Ui iUQ3
Ui *qafiH 0/i
re
UT
UT
apv^sBn-esorg
m
M
C9
Sun^qoiJUittuwxui
%JLQ%tiz
aT22
pun
ll^ddvj ai MJ9fl.ao
ut miHTBH
ut i0qtuoa
it
qojtnp pxreag âeasaez
i WiqTU0i*H
9o9bu8
(.2
Ui nsnvquqog
Ui
Ui .Juajm. qovqnuo
(aI
COT
M
M
i.L
9an9uxd8
UT
re
Ufi)un
9unaqoiJCUieuraui |ata|2N
qwenp
IJQisrsz
MM
MM
MM
MM
MM
MM
aJBpu8!j.S
V -
3mm
qoanp puvag
Ui
.?<P
ticmI
tew
qoxnp
(mug trq*mz
Sana ViQasrz
9UTl*qOiJniUUUI 14QtU9Z
r"
Dispatches
from American Diplomats
in Germany (Wilson)
The Ambassador
[Hull]
to the Secretary of State
November 10, 1938 - 2 p.m.

[Received November 10 10:35 a.m.]
Berlin,
9, 5 p.m.
In
breaking of Jewish
owned shop windows throughout the Reich and the burning of the
principal synagogues in Berlin was carried out. Observers noted
no uniforms of Nazi organizations among the perpetrators of this
Nevertheless, it is not conceivable that this admirable
action.
body of police would have tolerated such infraction of order
unless general instructions to that effect had been issued.
605.
the
My
600,
November
8,
p.m.
and
603,
early hours of this morning systematic
nevertheless carries the following
The noon press
semi-official
November
German
news
agency:
release by the
of the death of the German diplomat and Party member

at the hands of a Jewish murderer became known
in the whole Reich developed.
spontaneous anti-Jew demonstrations
The profound indignation of the German people found expression in
considerable anti-Jewish actions in many instances."
"When
Vom
news
Rath
Editorial
continues along the same lines described in my

reference which seems to imply a continuation of
anti-Jewish measures. Moreover, an order by Himmler is published
forbidding Jews to possess arms.
This has given rise to
considerable apprehension in connection with the return of Vom
Rath's body to Germany.

telegrams
comment
under
Although no arrests have been reported in Berlin the Consulate

Breslau reports arrests of Jews there this morning.
in
Wilson
Foreign Relations of the United States:
In :
1938.~Volume
and
Africa.
pages
II:
The
Washington
395-396.
British
,
D.C.
32
Diplomatic Papers,
Commonwealth, Europe,
Government Printing
Near
East
Office,
11)55 ,
David H. Buff urn, American Consul in Leipzig, November 10, 1938:
Violent anti-Semitic pogrom in progress in Leipzig.

Three synagogues in flames one next to Consulate
Hundreds of shop
burning but fire under control.
throughout
windows
lives molested
as
city
yet.
smashed
Fur
no
American property or
badly damaged.
district
In: Mendelsohn, John (ed.) and

Cable to the Secretary of State.
Detwiler, Donald S. (adv. ed.). The Holocaust. Selected
Volume 3: The Crystal Night
Documents in Eighteen Volumes .
Pogrom.
New York:
Garland Publishing, Inc., 1982, page 173,
Doc.
18.
Samuel Honaker, American Consul General

November 15, 1938:
in Stuttgart,

Of all the places in this section of Germany, the Jews

of Rastatt, which is situated near Baden-Baden, have
apparently been subjected to the most ruthless
treatment.
Many Jews in this section were cruelly
attacked and beaten and the furnishings of their homes
Practically all male Jews in
almost totally destroyed.
that city were arrested and transported either to
prisons or to concentration camps....
Similar
developments occurred in other places, and there were
doubtless many outrages....
So far as Stuttgart is
concerned, I can state confidently that these so called
reprisals against the Jews were not a spontaneous
originating from the people as a whole....

For more than five days the office has been inundated
with people.
Each day a larger and larger crowd has
besieged the Consulate, filling all the rooms and
overflowing into the corridor of a building six stories
movement
high.
Today
there were several thousand....
from Honaker 's report covering Stuttgart and other

George S. Messersmith, Assistant Secretary of State.
In: Mendelsohn, John (ed. ) and Detwiler, Donald S. (Adv. ed.).
The Holocaust.
Selected Documents in Eighteen Volumes.
Volume 3: The Crystal Night Pogrom.
New York:
Garland
Publishing, Inc., 1982, pages 176-181.
Excerpts
cities to
David H. Buffum, American Consul in Leipzig, November 21,
At
1938:
1938, was unleashed a barrage of

3 A.M. November 10,
Nazi ferocity as had had no equal hitherto in
Germany. ...
In one of the Jewish sections an eighteen
year old boy was hurled from a three story window to
land with both legs broken on a street littered with
33
burning beds and other household furniture and effects

from his family's and other apartments....
in Leipzig were fired simultaneously

incendiary bombs and all sacred objects and records
desecrated or destroyed, in most instances hurled
through the windows and burned in the streets ....
Three synagogues
by
The most hideous phase of the

action, has been the wholesale
transportation
so-called Spontaneous'
arrest and
to concentration
camps
of male
Jews between the ages of sixteen and sixty,
Jewish
men
without citizenship.
as
German
well
as
. . .
The slightest manifestation of sympathy evoked a

positive fury on the part of the perpetrators, and the
crowd was powerless to do anything but turn horrorstricken eyes from the scene of abuse, or leave the
vicinity.
. . .

Excerpts from Buff urn's report, "Anti-Semitic Onslaught in Germany

as Seen from Leipzig."
In: Mendelsohn, John (ed.) and Detwiler,
Donald S. (Adv. ed.).
The Holocaust.
Selected Documents in
Eighteen Volumes . Volume 3: The Crystal Night Pogrom.
New York:
Garland Publishing, Inc., 1982, pages 191-197,
Doc. 21.
34
EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS
1 .
Vienna, Austria
Twenty
of the
years
fall
is
of
in
a long time
19 38 are burned
in the morning,
in the center of the city, I
November 10,
a man's
into
life,
but the events
my memory.
...
On
on the way to a friend who lived

happened to read at a newsstand
the headlines of the Neue Preie Presse, one-time mouthpiece

The "aryanized' paper reported the death of
of liberalism.
Herr vom Rath in inflammatory Jew-baiting language in the
vein of Julius Streicher's notorious Stuenner.
Cautiously I watched the expressions of my neighbors.

Apparently they were little influenced by the Nazi
editorials. A Jewish lad had killed a petty official in
Paris so what? By that time, the Austrians were more
concerned with the growing food shortage than with Nazi
politics . But I found it advisable to postpone my visit and
return home.
I rushed to the nearest telephone booth to call
friend.
up my
friend's wife talked very nervously. Jacob had gone to a

grocer two hours ago but had not yet returned ! I tried to
comfort her as much as I could when a man preemptorily
demanded that I leave the booth.
"I am sorry,' I said to
him, "you have to wait until I've finished my call.'
He
waited, hot with anger.
"We are not in Paris, mind youl' he
muttered threateningly, when I left the booth.
He wore the
badge of the veteran party members .
My
decided to go home.
"Are you a Jew?'
The
But
after
a few
asked
minutes
was
this question
stopped.
had the
look of a criminal; he wore no badge.
Frequently Jews were
robbed in the streets of Nazi Vienna in broad daylight.
So
intimidated were the Jews that they often did not dare to
man
who
me
call for help.
I tried to elude the
with
me.
me.
man by walking faster.

He caught up
short struggle ensued. People gathered around
found out what
should have known
from the
start:
that not all Austrians were Nazi sympathizers.

Although all
of these people were wearing swastikas (for self -protection ) ,
they rallied to my aid, regarding my assailant as a common
gangster.
"Let him alone, at once!' they commanded my foe.
But the latter scornfully shouted at the crowd:
"Off with
you Gestapo 1'
He took a badge out of his pocket.
I had
never seen such a stampede
35
before....
I was dragged like a

put handcuffs on me.
the
crowded
streets
of my native
through
criminal
common
Vienna on that gloomy November day I shall never forget....
The Gestapo
man
Eventually I found myself in the cell of a police station

fifty or sixty other Jewish men arrested in the
myself, or dragged from their shops or homes.
like
streets
Our number increased as every five or ten minutes another
battered Jew was thrown into our already crowded cell.
along with
It was two o'clock in the afternoon when we got some water

Too exhausted for talk, we sat on the floor, or
but no food.
did whatever walking could be done in the small cell. Now
He would not tell us about the
and then a policeman came in.
looting of the few remaining Jewish-owned shops, or the
burning of the synagogues (of all this we were to learn much
later). In fact, he tried to reassure us, but with little
success. It was clear to us that he was uneasy and that he
even
felt
ashamed.
At eleven p.m. stormtroopers arrived to take charge of us.

We were herded into a dark prison van and driven to a Nazi
barracks. On our arrival we had to run the gauntlet of a wild
mob who beat us with sticks and iron bars.
The first to
enter the barracks was shot at once. On entering the hall,
he had stumbled against a Nazi guard, and another Nazi,
interpreting it as a hostile act, had pressed his trigger.
spent the night in the pitch dark rooms of what had been a
No one slept since we could hear the turmoil
going on in the street.
At about two a.m. the noise
gradually subsided, but few of us managed to fall asleep. We
What will become of us? What has happened to
kept thinking:
We

school house.
our families?
A boy of eighteen
mad that night.
As his
commit suicide by jumping out of the window.
head smashed through the glass he was seized and pulled back
The man was too
by one of our men, a former police sergeant.
late. The boy had cut one of the arteries of his neck and he
Three or four persons went
tried to
died despite the frantic efforts of

to stop the flood of blood.
some
doctors in our midst
During the seven days that followed we got, now and then, a
The Nazis (some of
few slices of black bread and some tea.
them Germans, to judge by their accents, but the majority
Austrian riff-raff) played with us as nasty boys would play
with their "pets.' They did not allow us an hour of rest.
Once a grim-faced man, a devil, entered our room, demanding
that we should choose one among us who should pay with his
life "for the sins of the others.' We refused instan
taneously and declared that we would rather all die than
He was not satisfied with this offer.
accept this demand.
He chose a man himself, and we did not see the victim again.
36
Another Nazi singled out the youngest of our group, a boy of

seventeen, put his revolver on the youngster's chest and
The brave youth replied:
barked:
"Say your prayers!'
"
Shoot, you coward!'
Whereupon the Nazi beast became so
infuriated that he beat the youth with his revolver until his
victim collapsed.
evening
it
was the last we were to spend in the

of us, several hundred people, were called
from the classrooms into the big gym where one of the Nazis
made a short speech:
One
all
barracks
Jewry in all
help you
will
Rath,'
"
shouted.
Every one of
But our Fuehrer will destroy
parts of the world, and not even your Jehovah
"You have murdered Herr vom

you is a Herschel Grynszpan.
!
he
'
to perform physical exercises under the mocking

supervision of the Nazis. From ten in the evening to eight
Then we had
in the morning we were chased through the overheated

We had to run,
gymnasium.
Not
jump, kneel without pause.
only young strong men, but also the elderly and the sick had
to keep up the pace in spite of the exhaustion from a week's
dreadful strain and lack of food and sleep. Several men
collapsed.
The Nazis "took charge" of these "recalcitrant"
ones in such a way that in the morning two or three were
found dead and a number of others badly injured.
I
wonder how I was able to hold out....

still
In the morning we were told to put on our coats and hats and
to go to the offices where we would be informed as to what we
could expect.
A ray of hope gleamed through our bitterness
and despair....
Perhaps .... the mortal foes had abated or
the democratic world powers (especially the U.S.), in whom we
believed, had intervened in our behalf.
We would be
released soon. We would see our families again. We would
shave and wash and go to bed sleep in our own beds.
We
would have a substantial meal next morning and again try to
get visas from the embassies of some South American or
still
African state (practically

hermetically
It
all
sealed to refugees
until
European countries were

from the Nazi terror) .
were herded into cattle cars and the

that our hopes of liberty sank. The
train, we understood, was carrying us off to that hell on
earth the concentration camp of Dachau.
was there that
learned from Bavarian, Prussian and Silesian Jews that
Austria and the whole of Germany had become Eretz ha-damim
was
train
not
began
to
we
move
It
(land of blood)
37
But the nations of the world

Poland was next on the agenda.
that had failed to grasp the importance of the " Black
Thursday' also failed to grasp the fact that the invasion of
I was in America after
Poland would initiate a global war.
a half year in Dachau, and a year
camp when a U.S. Senator naively
in a British internment
told an interviewer: "I
take no stock in the argument that the United States cannot

live peaceably in the world and live comparatively well '
economically if Europe is dominated by totalitarianism.
He
failed to realize that
happily in
mankind
could never hope to
world half slave and half free."
live
critic and historian, Alfred Werner, recounts his experiences

In: Eisenberg, Azriel. Witness
of the fall of 1938 in Vienna.
New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1981, pages 88to the Holocaust.
Art
91.
2 .
Duesseldorf,
Germany
[Rabbi Eschelbacher had just returned home at midnight on 9

the telephone rang.]
A voice, trembling with
horror, shouted "Rabbi, they're breaking up the synagogue
hall and smashing everything to bits, they're beating the
men, we can hear it from here.'
It was Mrs. Blumenthal who
lived next door....
I was just about to go there, but almost
at that very moment there was a violent banging at my own
door. I switched off the light and looked outside.
The
The next
square in front of the house was black with SA men.
moment they were upstairs, pushing in the front door of the
November when

flat.
The
staircase
swarmed
rushed in on us shouting:
with
men,
Revenge
of
all
for Paris!
ranks.
Down
They
with the
They pulled mallets out of their pouches and in a

splintered glass flew from window-panes and mirrors,
splintered wood from the furniture.
The gang came up to
Jews!'
moment
and
with clenched fists, one of them got hold of me and

ordered me downstairs .
I felt certain I would be beaten to
death.
I went into the bedroom, put down my watch, wallet
and keys and took leave of Berta .
me
Downstairs the street was full of SA men.

Counting those in
the house there must have been between fifty and sixty
altogether. The shout met me: "Give us a sermon!' I began
to speak of the death of Vom Rath, saying that his murder was
more a misfortune for us than the German people, that we were
in no way guilty for his death. ... On the corner, in the
Stromstrasse, the street was covered with books that had been
thrown out of the window, together with papers, documents and
letters.
myself
was
ruins of my typewriter were there also....

I
gripped by an SA man and hurled across the street
The
38
against the house .... The party Kreisleiter (district

"You are under arrest.'
leader) said to me:
[Rabbi Eschelbacher was then escorted to Duesseldorf police
headquarters by SA men who sang in unison "Revenge for Paris!
Passers-by joined in the chorus.]
Down with the Jews!"
Kochan, Lionel.
Witness
Azriel.
1981,
3 .
page 87.
Pogrom:
10
In: Eisenberg,
York: The Pilgrim Press,
November 1938.
to the Holocaust.
Potsdam
(suburban metropolitan
[Lionel
Kochan
New
Berlin),
recalled the morning of
Germany
November 10,
1938.]
I knew at once
never forget the sound of that bell.
Scantily dressed, I opened the door and my
fear was confirmed.
Five men in mufti faced me. The leader
said he was a Gestapo official and put me under arrest. Any
attempt at escape would be met by the use of arms, he warned.
He too was
At that moment my son came out of his room.
We had to dress under the supervision of the
arrested.
officials and then they ordered me to hand over the keys of
the synagogue and of the community records . When I replied
that the keys were kept by an Aryan janitor and that the
records were with the Treasurer, we were both taken out to
the car. . . .
I shall

what
it
meant.
The main synagogue door had resisted the attack of between

twenty and twenty-five men, so that I was forced to show the
leaders a side entrance....
They smashed the door down and I
led the ringleader through the back entrance into the
synagogue....
"We want to see the Holy of Holies!....'
In a few minutes the whole interior of the synagogue was

transformed into a heap of ruins.... the Scrolls of Law ripped
into shreds, the great Menorah used as a battering ram.
In: Kochan, Lionel. Pogrom,

Deutsch, 1957, pages 74-75.
4.
10
November 1938.
London: Andre
Dins 1 aken , Germany

was awakened by the shrill ringing of the
sense of foreboding I opened the front
door. Three men, two Gestapo officers and a policeman in
mufti, entered announcing:
"This is a police raid! We are
looking for arms in all Jewish homes and apartments and so we
shall search the orphanage too!' The three commenced their
task at once. They searched only the ground floor,
especially the small office and the work-room of the
children. In the office they cut the telephone wires and
Early one morning I
door
bell.
With
39
lockers and drawers of the young students

searching for money. Unobserved for a moment, the Gestapo
officer Schneider whispered in my ear: " During the night all
But there is no
the Jewish men in Dinslaken were arrested.
Nothing will happen to you ! You will
need for you to worry.
Schneider, I later found
remain in charge of the children.'
out, was a former Social Democrat and had always been
friendly to Jews. After the search, which lasted for 25
minutes and which as was to be expected yielded no
opened the
tangible results, the Nazi officers left the building and

following order: " Nobody is to leave the house
before 10 a.m.! All the blinds of the building which face
Shortly after 10 a.m. everything
the street must be drawn!
gave the

will
be over
'
About one hour later, at 7 a.m., the morning service in the

Some
synagogue of the institution was scheduled to commence.
people from the town usually participated, but this time
Only the teacher of the Jewish primary
nobody turned up.
school and two Polish Jews, who escaped during the
Polenaktion [expulsion of the Polish Jews who were living in
Germany to the Polish border] of October, attended the minyan
[prayer service which requires the presence of ten men].
Then I heard the ringing of the house bell.
The sound of the
bell, which I hastened to answer, became louder and louder.
When I opened the door a strange man faced me.
In the dim
light of the street-lamp I recognized a Jewish face. In a
few words the stranger explained to me:
"I am the president
of the Jewish ^co-mmunity of Duesseldorf.
I spent the night in
the waiting-room of the Gelsenkirchen Railway Station.
I
have only one request let me take refuge in the orphanage
for a short while. While I was traveling to Dinslaken I
heard in the train that anti-Semitic riots had broken out
everywhere, and that many Jews had been arrested.
Synagogues
everywhere are burning.'
With anxiety I listened to the man's story; suddenly he said
with a trembling voice:
"No, I won't come in!
I can't be
safe in your house! We are all lost!' With these words he
disappeared into the dark fog which cast a veil over the
I never saw him again.
morning.
this Job's message I forced myself not to show

emotion.
Only thus could I avoid a state of
the children and tutors.
Nonetheless I was of
that the young students should be prepared to
brave the storm of the approaching catastrophe.
About 7:30
a.m. I ordered 46 people among them 32 children into
the dining hall of the institution and told them the
following in a simple and brief address:
"As you know, last
night a Herr vom Rath, a member of the German Embassy in
Paris, was assassinated. The Jews are held responsible for
this murder. The high tension in the political field is now
being directed against the Jews, and during the next few
In spite of
sign of
panic among
the opinion
any
40
hours there
will
will certainly
happen even
in our
be
town.
anti-Semitic excesses.
It is my feeling and
This
my
impression that we German Jews have never experienced such

calamities since the Middle Ages. Be strong! Trust in G-d!
I am sure we will withstand even these hard times. Nobody
will remain in the rooms of the upper floor of the building.
The exit door to the street will be opened only by myself!
From this moment on everyone is to heed my orders only! '
were sent to the large study-hall
The teacher in charge tried to keep them
After breakfast the pupils

of the institution.
busy.
the main gate rang persistently.

I
about 50 men stormed into the house, many
of them with their coat-or- jacket-collars turned up. At
first they rushed into the dining room, which fortunately was
empty, and there they began their work of destruction, which
was carried out with the utmost precision.
The frightened
and fearful cries of the children resounded through the
building. In a stentorian voice I shouted:
"Children, go
out into the street immediately! ' This advice was certainly
contrary to the order of the Gestapo.
I thought, however,
that in the street, in a public place, we might be in less
danger than inside the house. The children immediately ran
down a small staircase at the back, most of them without hat
or coat despite the cold and wet weather.
We tried to
reach the next street crossing, which was close to
Dinslaken's Town Hall, where I intended to ask for police
protection. About ten policemen were stationed here, reason
enough for a sensation-seeking mob to await the next
development.
This was not very long in coming; the senior
police officer, Freihahn, shouted at us: "Jews do not get
protection from us! Vacate the area together with your
children as quickly as possible! ' Freihahn then chased us
back to a side street in the direction of the backyard of the

At 9:30 a.m. the

opened the door:
orphanage
bell at
Yitzhak S.
"Kristallnacht at the Dinslaken Orphanage."
In: Gutman, Israel and Schatzker, Chaim. The Holocaust and Its
Significance. Jerusalem: The Zalman Shazar Center, The
Herz,
Historical Society of Israel,

5.
Berlin,
1984,
pages
47-48.
Germany
fourteen-year-old boy, M. I. Libau, had gone to bod that night

home in Berlin.
Suddenly, at six o'clock in the morning,
the doorbell rang, waking him up.
His mother went to the door
in his
and opened
it.
He
heard the
seemed
to
me
told
shrill,
what happened then:
barking, yelling voices of
there were at least twenty.
41
men.
It
Then I heard
"Are here Goyim or Ivrim [Gentiles or Jews]?'
I understand
speak
"Please
German.
calm voice.
my mother's
we
to
are
know
wish
whether
you
well,
but
very
Jews,
we
are
Jews!'
or
Christians
if
it
I heard
they?' they yelled.
glass. I could not
breaking
noises of falling furniture and
I stood behind my bed when one
imagine what was happening.
He stepped back a
Nazi in full uniform entered the room.
fraction of a second when he saw me; then he began to yell,
I won't do any harm to you.'
do nothing to you.
"Where are the Jews?
Where are
"I'll
A smell of bad
Now he stood near me, his face sweating.
He took another glaring look
alcohol came out of his mouth.
at me and began to destroy everything within reach. While he
was breaking the closet door, my mother came into the room.
He commanded her to hold the clothes for him so that he would
be able to tear them better.
Desperately my mother called
out, "Those are all our clothes ! What shall we wear?'
"You wear?
clothes!
It
Nothing!'
he
shouted.
You can go naked now.'
"You
don't need any more
my heart when I saw him take my father's best

"Don't
This is my father's best suit,' I called out.
tear it! Don't! '
almost broke
suit.
watched the men destroy the whole apartment of five

All the things for which my parents had worked for
eighteen long years were destroyed in less than ten minutes.
Piles of valuable glasses, expensive furniture, linens in
short, everything was destroyed; nothing was left untouched.
After those ten minutes, the apartment was a heap of ruins.
.We
. .

rooms.
mother and I looked at everything without shedding a tear.

The Nazis left us,
felt as
we had lost our minds.
yelling, "Don't try to leave this house! We'll soon be back
again and take you to a concentration camp to be shot . '
My
if
We
Mr. Libau, who had been

But the Nazis did not come back then.
railroad, came home and
on
the
nights
working
as a forced laborer
Many of
went into hiding in the cellar of a Christian friend.
the family's friends committed suicide that night, some went
insane, and some were murdered.
Meltzer, Milton.
In:
Forget:
1976,
6 .
The Jews
pages 52-53.
Leipzig,
Ge
Never to
"The Night of Broken Glass."
of the Holocaust. New York: Harper & Row,
raany
Jewish dwellings were smashed into and the contents

In one of the Jewish sections,
demolished or looted.
42
an
eighteen-year-old boy was hurled from a three-story window to

land with both legs broken on a street littered with burning
Jewish shop windows
beds and other household furniture....
by the hundreds were systematically and wantonly smashed
throughout the city at a loss estimated at several millions
of marks.... The main streets of the city were a positive
litter of shattered plate glass.... The debacle was executed
by SS men and Storm Troopers, not in uniform, each group
having been provided with hammers , axes , crowbars and
incendiary bombs ....
describing what he saw. In: Meltzer,
The Jews
Never to Forget:
Night of Broken Glass."
1976, page 52.
Row,
New
York:
&
Harper
Holocaust.
of the
An
American eyewitness
Milton.
7.
"The
Emden , Germany
Dead
lamps
silence not a sound to be heard in the town. The

in the street, the lights in the shops and in the
It is 3:30 a.m. All of a sudden noises in

houses are out.
the street break into my sleep, a wild medley of shouts and
shrieks. I listen, frightened and alarmed, until I
distinguish words: "Get out, Jews! Death to the Jews!'
I
jump out of bed and call my parents, who do not seem to have
heard anything.
I stop and listen. "They' are at our
neighbour's house. Suddenly I hear shots.... Then again:
"Death to the Jews!'
What shall I do?
In a second they will
Perhaps I should
be here.
Is there
a hope of escape?
try to crawl over the roof into the house of our Christian
neighbours?
They would not give me away.
Or perhaps?....
still
Fists
are hammering at the door.

The shutters are broken
We can hear the heavy cupboards crashing to the floor;
the whole house trembles and shudders.
Two Storm Troopers
rush upstairs, shouting at the top of their voices:
"Out
with the Jews!'
I run out of my room, and down the stairs.
There I meet my parents, and silently we exchange a look.
They shot at us from the street.
We were forced to descend
the steps during the shooting, my eyes looked straight into
the guns.
Fear left me.
I knew there was no escape from the
bullets.
"I am hit,' stammers my father, before he breaks
down on the stairs.
I am forced to go on, but I can see
blood on the stairs and a dark stain on my father's back.
My
mother takes him back to the bedroom.
I have reached the
street, and one of the Storm Troopers holds me by the neck.
The others rush upstairs and compel my mother, despite her
pleading, to leave my father and come with them.
open.
are led through the dark streets of Emden.

Where are we
We do not know.
going?
We pass the savages
at work in all
the Jewish houses.
The sky reflects a red glare:
our
synagogue has been set on fire.
We reach a big square
We
up
by
searchlights
and
hemmed
43
in
by Storm
Troopers.
We
lit
were
first to arrive, but the square is gradually crowded.

our friends and relatives join us . Some are clad only in
A young woman whispers into my
a coat, others are barefoot.
ear: Had I seen her husband who was separated on the way? I
I had seen the Storm
know the answer, but I did not reply.
Troopers knock him down and torture him to death.
the
All
Now
Then I saw Troopers dragging my father to the square .
and then he broke down, and every time they beat him until he
got up and stumbled on. When he reached the centre of the
and remained lying on the ground, and they
square, he
We were forced to follow the Troopers.
drew a sack over him.
"Lie
One ordered us to form a circle round him, and shouted:
down !
Get up ! ' And we had to obey .
fell
At seven the sun rose. Police appeared in the streets.

There was great excitement among the population who went to
their work. In front of every Jewish house that had been
wrecked crowds were gathering.
The police came to our square
and called for the Jewish doctor to examine the wounded and
bandage them.
My father was wounded in the lungs, and the
ambulance came to take him to the hospital.
The police
behaved decently and assisted the Jewish doctor in his task.
little
over sixty-five, women and children, were

not among them, but when I said good-bye to
"I am sure you will be home before
my mother, she said:
night.' Then she left the square, alone.
A
released.
later
men
was
it
was followed
For us who remained a terrible day began, and
A group of men and boys, and I
by a more dreadful night.
among them, were taken in to a big hall which was normally a
During the night we had to
on the floor and
gymnasium.
close our eyes.
In the darkness Storm Troopers sat round a
big table. That was the "Tribunal.' When one of us was
called, he had to get up, walk over to the table, and answer
The "Accused' was almost blinded by a
every question.
powerful searchlight. One of my friends was called and

lie
accused of "Rassenschande'
passed:
Death.
["race-violation"].
Judgment was
we had been ordered to keep our eyes closed, I

But
them from time to time to see what was happening.
I did not realise that one of the Guards stood by my side.
I went to the table, and the
He shouted:
"Get up!'
searchlight was directed on my face.
blinded me. My
name was written down; then I was asked:
"Are you a student
"No.'
"Do you know the Talmud?'
"I know
of the Talmud?'
that there is a book called the Talmud.
Its contents are not
"Is
true that a sack of stones is put into
known to me.'
the graves of your dead so that they may stone Jesus in the
Although
opened
It
it
other world?'
yard. Again
shouted:
After that, I with others was taken into the

made to run in a circle, again they
up. Lie down.'
we were
"Get
44
One of the Guards

At seven the next morning that was over.
explained
He
that
soon some
down.
lie
ordered us to
question how we
arriving,
and
to
their
be
would
"Gentlemen'
Gestapo officers
"Very well.'
had slept, we should answer:
arrived. The asked us, and we replied as we have been
instructed. Then we were marched to the railway station.
During that time I had never lost my self-control, but when
we passed the hospital where my father was dying, I could
hardly keep going.
It
All of us had had our last meal on

were taken by train to Oldenburg, and
The Hitler Youth were
led through the streets of the town.
lined up and abused us as we marched. At midday we continued
the journey to our unknown destination. Where will they take
All we knew was
Everyone brooded over this question.
us?
that we were going towards an
fate.
was
Friday morning.
Wednesday evening.
We
ill
At eight in the evening,
We could not see

the train stopped.
The Guards opened the doors , and ordered us
to get out. As soon as some had left the train, we heard
screams.
Storm Troopers set upon
those who had got out,
striking them with the butt-ends of their rifles. I hid in a
corner of my compartment and waited. Outside hundreds of
Storm Troopers had suddenly appeared out of the darkness .
All the carriages were emptied. We were about two thousand
A mad hunt began.
Jews from our town, Bremen and Hamburg.
We were driven to a forest-path, and forced to run as fast as
we could.
Those who stopped were beaten.
We ran and ran,
where
we
were
all

without seeing anything; we stumbled over roots, against the

trees we knew we ran for our lives. If one could not drag
himself any further, if the beating was of no avail, he was
thrown on a van.
lights and searchlights [loomed] in front of us.

of Storm Troopers came towards us. We were driven
through big gates, and found ourselves in a huge open space
surrounded by high walls.
Barbed wire on top of the walls,
watch-towers in the four corners, Storm Troopers with
to the
machine-guns . We knew where they had taken us :
concentration camp.
Suddenly,
Crowds
A Youth Aliyah immigrant,

Norman Bentwich,
aged
sixteen,
British-Israeli jurist
related this story to
and
writer.
Eisenberg, Azriel. Witness to the Holocaust.

Pilgrim Press, pages 84-86.
45
New
In:
York: The

Responses Selected from the
The
first
four pages
page headlines
12 and 13, 1938.
front
11,
library for
Print,
Media
and the
Literature
of this section are copies of the

of the New York Times, November 8,
Please check with your local
the complete
47
articles .
?i !iin!!
i'
ICI
*s I
Hi

e * 5 S
B k
i'Ic
HMfx;EiM it *:i
J,
hi
.if
! ? c
'
' - -
- 1*
at
E .
|j
*- 1
S
!e -
Hi
11r 8
"UN
fill 7 --* <cc c*-c^

I
f!
nil. -.;!;
I'
t
c Z
*,
i e
s ~
c ? Z c
X >c *
21
S=
ft I :!!!*
is i = -
=1
if -
c
*S
e c >-t
1 c r T 1

55
49
.?
!
,I Z
1 , J
Co
ESI
mi

50
t
" t.
^ 1
- ^1
:
Id
t-
!.-
|bd:i
s. b
.i
Zc
T1,
S3
-i
!!
1
1
a=
jliil
Q~
si|
*i
OO .
~
= t :
>-l
IE . 2f*
"ff
[
. 1
II fi
s
.:
4"
CO
CO
"
CO
CO
r- T
5
0
v;;5
iva;
<1.
~
3
H *a = ~ g
w.3 o. 2. ! 5
25.

S.S!
2 3 j
1
1 1
.is:?
= ^3 *
f 3-..S;
2 5
w
a 3
-f i
Hi
i -
'
3 *
4 a
I5
-
, - g a, 9
s.
3 ?
-j =-
3"!
I >g .
|Ii>I
is
-3
-- ,*
2.
.j
3
.
1 H
a. 3"
-
* 0 -j3
: 1 y
i -
=
0
5 1 a. = 2
ft
5.
S
~
1 sii
. ?< 1:
1 3 .:
. S
.a
2 = 1-
<
ZD
n
U
3
3
m
3"
Os
<K
a
c
o o
^'
CO
cd
it o
S" n>
S.
51
Co
do
Co
n*- 0 c*a
On
--j
o
K
H
2.3 1 '
- i.
r-
^- is.
j?
2.
C*5
n CD
00
pi
50 2P
CD CD
22
*,
1 CO
A
a 3
_
* 5
^3>-
O
00
a;
a5- a
O
m
CO
-H
a-
a" 3
to
5 S
^7
.o*
If I"
9 i
1 3
s "3
a,
d =
r:ri
2
Ban
5 5 a-
if
5 2
St. 5 fit s
j
x=
:
h
?
la
;
* r2 I
?5
-2
o ^ 2;
" 7 "
1:3.
;
.
;- <
> 2.
a m<
a
_ =r>
3
o
-1 5! !'
3. 3 M J :
3- ; 3
E 3x
c
!
3
-33"
-
i .5
3r
i 3 sf"
? yi

g
R 3
= a s-
.3 3 3
- -r
3
?
p.*
= ;s
? 3
i
.J
*
a
3 2
C 1
O
S 3 3 3
5 T 7 3
S3',
2 _ c
Da
i>3
3
?-
shi
1 + +
m3N
shoa 'saini 'Avaanivs naawaAON
*2i
agj. |*|to| poa jo iaqi ai aqi uoaiod aojqi i| Jjo qua ||a jno
niuoin*> lu.u.<wI oonaaijiap
d
J aH janiH jiaauiiq
mon paaaa/lal*1 fjJNladainM uu> i1 a| afui iaqi aqi |*u.iaiui ajiojja
jujj
w
OMOaUMVH
:Auvuuto
>) aoam/e
Jo Xuauuao aj* jaq uao -aaauianq
J[ aqa p|noq* aanpojiuiaj -lanjs
M3 09*31
uonij pua tuiujnq ia aqi aqti*
i
aaaqj jaajnoj ovqj. LI11
ia14i pinoa aq jaq aXa|iAiid a* a aqx
ing ajaqi aja
a|doadjo aqi iaaj jo aqi pijoa
utiajaAoa aids
aiu aonoui
uaag pauj.a Xq jO
aAaq
qaiqa
ajv
1uii|oaaj
'
oi
oa
laiaqqaoo
aaaiiWjd
..uu ,
a| ,.,^h
iaVM
xua.adaaiaaauiuJia m pn
qma a jpaqiaa joj -iiiaia iou oi iaaiojd am iaaiai aatajino lui
iaqi a'n X.p^-oddn...'..
i>lu ' i
iuaAaaaoptauoXaq,
J aqi , Xu.uij.., oonau*iaj
. iu.u.q.p
aqi
^
jaqaj*q
p,ii|aijW,
-un i
uo
aanaf
aauaaq.
iaqi
naoinq
wmuôt
i|jU
Xua
Moo|
ajaqa jo iaaiojd ianrata uiaqi ai ai*unuoj nouaqf una oi ui*ujaj !
aiqiauodaajqoui oi
qaiaH a)| aqaa aqi -ui|
unj iom Xj*jiuos oi vi pua j,pjo iaoui|* iuaiaA|noa oi raAojdd* jo uiqna aqiaqx
aidoad apiaino -ja0
on Juiioadaaj-jiaa u*ui jo -a|qiaaod
ox ojni aqi qai jaao oi <jon 1maqi
Xuauj oqa una afi|aA-aau*ja|oi -un ;
uaojoa uu.
paui.ji. .i.Aijd Xjn, .1 .q.
pu* Xiiu*uinq u* ou .
uipuaiajap
aja
oajawunj
a
aaaqi
ajojjoq
urJIuli
.
Xo
!-at*a
-iaoodaaj
ajouj daaniuaiia ui aqi aaaj ja iaq I
"on Jo pa*in*P j*aiiuod
q
j.qiJ u*q. 1-aoI
a*q itni aaqvi aaaid aaqi Xaqi j
m*W *m**n
a*i
paaali qaaXi Xnj^
iuauiuja H aqi jamH aaiiaj 1'uamujaAVi
pinoa ui aqi aaaj jo Xu* jaqio -j*q :
ui tuiiuaojoj ujaiiiuias-nua pajq *
xiuaq
N010N|HSVAA
iaaaq iaqi i1 aaj*p u ianuxaj
HI
n
flUijlON|Mdt
ajaadtqx imj
anuaM.. jo a loiajaautn..*vnX|qaqoxdiou aauw aqi tuiuaAa jo
"a*j aj.**nnani
K .un paa aqi XpooiqaXap uaqM a aaaiauioqpua aaaiadoq-aiA
H"^
oqx qa*j pM jo aqi tunoX ,.r | po< nqliu iaqi paaouoj paq aqi uiu ;o nraM XuuuXi aaqijia -qa*q
aatnjaj uiojj Xumujao oqa x,|ai.j j uaadognj piaoa uaaatuiqiXua aunb aja aaa.Xu*uijao a i*ajj pua pnojd
i aaq*ndoioa ai irqa qooi aa*|4 aqiw qaiq aon*o ai aq i* aqi
popunoa a u*tiijao îTOoidip
j*0 iuojjojoj jo .ooii*wniAia tuiq*i a 1
auaj t| mq * J)ad uo q>iqa aqi I X*pmjnqx inoqinojqi jai*jJ
, . aqi
,D
.... iB
aqu
|arua paa aiqoaJi afaaAaj aa aa -ai 1
i*iruq uowaaiTa |jo Xo*ai l! a1urid iaqi
ajjaaaauj aqi iaaaou aaaj joj aqi ia jo a -aXq
aqi I a*ioo|oqvia8 a XaQ
ioaaaj anoiaojOj aiaaijdBj atuiaaa raauai Xoq i1 ai aaqaaaadan
oi
in poaiajapun ajaqa aqi <aqi oauuao taaf ajaa Xirrpijjo dvoaa aqi ooianiauoaiaqj aqi -jaf>
1pajoauodt
ausujnq ui 1aja*at
aliuiqiauodaaj-aiaaj
aa
uaui
.aidoad
aqx uouao*idia ai jou oi aq punoj !
aa Xu* uoiiau . aj* japun aqi iojiuoo
ui aqi paau*i*quo*puiui jo qinoXj
jo a iuawujaAot quav aqi ar*jooj ja
0MT1A1T0
aaoqa eiuaj*d pua ajaiapr pua I
a furqaoXi Xij*d ia an iajoal
**a) J*J aaM
ajaqinjq ajaa ujoi uiojj jiaqi auioq.
Xipuaijjun
pua iaa ij|jp* ui ua
a*j aM1m*ul jaiaaO
AMSN091N0W
aia*n>jpauiaa a paq aui*u
>iio mq ai aqi aaxnai pua aqi
amnlan pajj **j*jaX
awaaq ja aaji WHI 1
J* -Jao
^ 1 <l0 r*n
auioj pium uo japun
a*ujj I -jaaiuaAa*
1
x
qii|ja a*n aMMim ia
I u..tV
Iv ^.q, jaA>
aqi apnaj ainiimi
I j|aqi pu*uiuioa
VMTNO
a*n iuaixa jo aqi xiiaojaj jo I v vm> qa*iia iaui*>* aqi -ivuiAj
aaaf ui Xu*mjao ing 1*1a
iauivta aqi ut[ lui
jo qauajj jo IajajpjMPJ
* uaaq iqtnojq oi aa auaaijaarv
paaiaui jo luiaavd quiqi i*qi aqi imn oo aqi aaOf
aqj. Iwuui ia*oq a*q Xiiuanbajj paa ai Xuvuuao
qaviia uo a aituia am aoo|
aqi
ua
ai
jo
ui|aj
aqi
mojj
aa
Xuauijao
iaqi
jtiHH
aa|inod
uaaq apaui Xq
pioq oa aq.L iaaN jojjai apuain oi ajooi
japun iiakj iuauiujaAaj 01 a pua| inavDUjaAotauaqituajia m
aidoad u*qi aajoqi jo qaVa0f -aa
u] aqi aqi .Xjyohoo uitiiioaacMiua ai -aaiui Xji*a
jo Iaajjad aai pua japjo
aiqi qa*A\ M MM*
jo
-aajaaa
ai aqi paujva| wnf
-a*u"> auo -iaa(qa
oiojj Mil aaariaA iaqi
bian puioj XnuapiAa oniaq-aar
pua fuiXjjaq-Mioqiaj aqooj op >aa oon*aaijao? ja qavaaf qi|aaa paa iaaipja.> ja*ir**i ai *aiaq p|aq ui
ja
aqi
aoiiala*aj
.Xuadojd
a
ioo|
-aaaf
-At ajjva*jd,, lama.Up *1 auuaia
iunoa tnoiom aHua* Xaui
a.ioaoaaja paaa jo juaj -vporg
uvi aajoia unujfl "ajaopinji nodaap
Xav i|Wii q aqi P*K Doitnu
a -iojaD
ua pio aidoada. auioq jo
ai aqai n Xs*maao
-a|npAA|pu|
ajau aâiad iaji|*uj
nSVMAt
mu iaqi ai iaa
aqi auiiiaiA *ja
qua aqi pjaM
v a avaii uaq aqi pni||Aia
aqj. .pniualjo
a| tuiqoiqi jo a**ld pua (jotojoa
joj aaaajd auo Jo aqi iaaia*j jno X||aiuau pauoddna X|||*iiuq jo
V900NVX1VH9

jo paiunaA ajniina
pua Xiiimiuq \mn\ aiwo* uiUjJ aq aj iaq aq -jnt
qaajq ra oa a*aAaa ui aii ja|-*joo aqi Xauaaapui
|M aaaj jnq qiw ua -un
za i Piiiuijd "| Xuauij*o u unnii ajaj jojuauij*u
aia -**
aa Xaui||j ui m *iaipauiui|
aq ou Xuiiap mm aiIUkii
ajaqi
ua3 X|uo |j iaqi
uIa
pauopuoa
Xq
iaMi
n
Hnj pua oa Xiq*d|ad
<jaqi
puiq
pua ppajAP Xq aMi
p*uiaqi
qn
aq
jo
i
*
, aqi iuauiujaAot iaqi aa\ pua | a iuauiujaao1
Xiaauoq ou poot | uit|jaqjaq jo i|q mo aaaj * -q
o0
jo
ou
hjm"-"
*|
.Xjai*Au
XaaaaBP
aiqi
aoxioqia
Xiipmo Ja>Xm pan aodn i -joiAaq
a
uo||**ii|ao nq pinjtojd X|uojoj
oaiqa 0i puadap
-*nIiV ji n annuad
" m>>
H*t 03ti3NVMJ
*u q*na Xiiajoornqai
OTVaMIM
-IB inva)
in
puauuapunaqi puonnnao
>m
! -Xuaaajaf) aqi aood pua -aoI aiiaipaa i*npiA|pui ui Xua aoaj pu*
-aajiu*ui
aqx iu<iu pa* Xi|jaAaa jo aiqi iO0OJuja >i*ioUJo -ilpUMMl AMI m aa u*a iunoaoa joj am
Xuaiua u\ jjaH
q*ajqino jo anauojjai ai -Aa||aqun pomaM oi q tuiwa a* ajnai*aoaoid uonai jo minim pq
i|
j|
iou
iq i1 ai anoiAqo iaqi uo Xoa 5 m *,

a anm i* .jM.iiH ina
auop ui Xuauuao aa pinoa iou -aq
apunojf aqi uoii*m Ja a
"NPA a.qaqqaoo paindaj a
1MJu|
PinoS
uauIDaui
<qm
aAa||iSOi Ouo
jouiiu |aia|jjo >ouu*aXj|>*n(
ai ir", wn ooiinaaajad in
a.aiaqqaooapjom aja II I MOi |il aiu| a aioqa uo|iau jo iuatmaiui -|auM
aiat voiiahaiaj ui nqi jaausoj
Moid qua
)u*p|aui ui Bu^d ] X|uo *qi
tpoop M(i UHjBg iuBUIuJBAot uIia0 a|q X||*iiuaaaa Xipuiq
. joj
lulqauX) a|i| UMO ->i1aUaJKaupaUl
papja*Aj. U* Su|PSai
a ojojJtod ajoui iqmj-i
luaooq
a*q
p|jojt
ui
aqi
|
%mt
1Xua
. Iuavajd Xjniuaa |avvdau >ra|a*v
ton maoNV
aqI avinia jo u
miAyiAOio
omj. ~r>>3puno* i*,ufi
' a|uq aidoad joj
n a qnqjAojqi
iqtirajjAjjAo
qjnoX
|
1oi .Xi|jaqjaq
ova Miupop iMM <n imp|Aipu| 1
inoqiia 1 jo a dnoj* Xaui Xpanf q paqaiundI
aaapauiv uw3
NOXtOI
jo aujqa paa jajjoq MR -un joJ M|i uI|jo Jo Mii tfnoj* J|Mi| *|
uutvuog q^X-J *aan
a|oqa
PMPMO,A J uoBMMUMl nn *1 ajoui aiqauai uaqi i*qi *
thaw
*
"a
jo aau>f ui dnojf Xaui aq paqaiund joj aqi
,
qi
aqx iaaiqou uniMj jo wdmb *u|Xjpivw
jo ua |*np|A|pu| qioa -aop
iIMM ai .ajoui aqi aaujnj i|naj
ijuui Huo|*qoi :XjaJ*Aa* ou i*joui
.uou*t|||A|o iaadaaj joj uiwnq -ju
, aaq umq pauopuaqa joj mii ion J l"H Maiaf-nua uoaiod ai iuiam
paUa3
U| jo |*la| apoa jo Xua uajaqiia
jaqio apua|
p*junuBiuno:>
1Juiaq ui .Xoauuao pua I Xpooiqpio paijua aiui
pjanJ iBu|Ifa qanz pazmAia **q
ianui
jat
UauJV
uaaq
aajom
nii
do
XJoioqiXui
i
Mmg
8861
Franklin
D.
The news
Roosevelt, President of the United States:

of the past few days from Germany has deeply shocked
public opinion in the United States . Such news from any part
of the world would inevitably produce a similar profound
reaction among American people in every part of the nation .
in
could scarcely believe that such things could occur

twentieth century civilization.
myself
a
With a view to gaining a first-hand picture of the current

situation in Germany I asked the Secretary of State to order
our Ambassador in Berlin to return at once for report and
consultation
The Public Papers and

Samuel I. (compiler).
of Franklin Delano Roosevelt with a Special
Introduction and Explanatory Notes by President Roosevelt.
"The Five
Volume:
The Continuing Struggle for Liberalism.
Hundredth Press Conference, (Excerpts), November 15, 19 38."
New York:
MacMillian Company, 1941, pages 596-597.
In:
Rosenman,
Addresses
1938
Herbert Hoover, former President of the United States (1929-

1933)
This rise of intolerance today, the suffering being inflicted

upon innocent and helpless people, grieves every decent
American.
It raises our every sense of indignation. It
makes us fearful for the progress of civilization,
and it is
our hope that those springs of tolerance and of human
compassion which lie deep in the German people may yet rise
to control Germany.
But in the meantime our condemnation of
these leaders should be without reserve.
They are bringing
to Germany moral isolation from the entire world.
In:
New
York Times
November 15,
19
38, page 4.
Harold L. Ickes, Secretary of the Interior:
I speak.... not as a Cabinet Officer or a political spokesman,

but as a Christian and as a human being.... These assaults
are at the bottom not assaults against Jews alone....
They
are assaults against reason; they are assaults against
civilization.
. . .
It is
an old stratagem of tyrants first to make hated those

they intend to rob. Once before the world has had to
appeal to the reason and humanity of people over the heads of
leaders who had alienated all the rest of the world. The
civilized people of the world are appealing tonight to those
in other lands where assaults are being made against
whom
53
civilization,
to do unto others as they would that others
would do unto them.
In:
New
Alfred
. . .
York Times, Tuesday, November 15,
page 4.
Presidential Candidate of
Landon, Republican
M.
1938,
1936:
All
free people are shocked and horrified at the inhumanity

intolerance visited upon the Semitic race in the Nazi
countries ....
and
...the
mind
that views brutality and injustice with
indifference because it primarily affects the Jews is not

awake to the real danger....
Tolerance and freedom go hand and hand.
So too tolerance and
law and order go hand in hand.
When law and order break down
to the extent where intolerance can break out into
persecution then all freedom of mankind is in danger.
In:
New
York Times
Robert F. Wagner,
Tuesday,
November 15,
U.S. Senator from
New
1938,
page 4.
York:
are no ordinary flare-ups of bigotry

intolerance, no sudden outburst of national passion.
They are the latest and cruelest phases of the pogrom that
has been raging in Germany since the advent of the Nazi
These recent outbursts

and
We know today that we are dealing with a determined

deadly force, directed not merely against the Jewish
people, but against every manifestation of the democratic
regime.

and
ideal
In:
New
....
York Times
November 21,
1938,
page 8.
George Measer smith, Assistant Secretary of State:
all the many acts of the present German Government against

innocent and defenseless peoples, these last are the
culmination.
For a Government to order and to carry through
such a wholesale action against a part of its people, and to
threaten the rest of the world with further action if it
should even pass censure, is an irresponsible and mad act
that our Government cannot pass unnoticed.
Of
it
be known where we stand

have throughout our history let
Whenever such
on matters of principle and the decencies
acts in the past have been committed, or permitted by
Governments, in countries which the world has considered less
civilized, we have spoken and acted. . . .
We
54
....
country which vaunts its civilization as superior

in cold blood and with deliberation acts worse than
those we have in the past dealt with vigorously, the time has
come, I believe, when it is necessary for us to take action
beyond mere condemnation.
When
commits
It is
belief that unless
we take some action in the fact

of the last few days, we shall be
behind our public opinion in this country.
my
of the events in
much
Germany
Cable to Secretary of State Cordell Hull, November 14, 1938. In:

Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1938.
The British Commonwealth, Europe, Near East and"
Volume II:
Washington , D.C. : Government Printing Office, 1955.
Af r ica .
pages 396-8.
Thomas
E. Dewey,
New
York
District Attorney:
In protest against the anti-Semitic acts in Germany, Mr. Dewey

appealed to world opinion to halt "the savagery and barbarism"
which he declared had inspired "the bloody pogrom."
Mr. Dewey brushed aside the statement of Propaganda Minister
Josef Goebbels to the foreign press that the riots had not been
staged by the German Government.
If
gang of cowardly ruffians set upon and beat a

on the street you would not stand silent.
you saw a fanatical mob pillage and burn a church or a
you saw a brutal
synagogue you would not stand silent.
band drive helpless families from their own homes, you would
Multiply those incidents by
speak out and promptly.
thousands and you have the sickening spectacle of what has
occurred in Germany.... No amount of lame excuses by the
German Minister of Propaganda can make the picture any
you saw
helpless
If
man

If
different
outbursts of plundering,
looting
arson in leading
same time, are the
unmistakable earmarks of an organized plot to crush the
The authorities did nothing to interfere.
Jewish people....
A careful reading of newspaper accounts shows that the raids
The looting of shops, we are
were staged as a Nazi rampage.
told by newspaper reports, is called by Nazi apologists an
act of God.'
Never has there been more offensive blasphemy
by any government in the history of the world.
The
cities of
Germany
and
Austria, all at
and
the
since the days of medieval barbarism has the world been

to look upon such a spectacle as this. Never.... was
human cruelty so well organized on a national scale.
Not
forced
The
and
violation of the homes of Jews and the cowardly beating

mauling of the aged and helpless was not enough.
Houses
55
of worship were systematically desecrated. These shocking

desecrations are only another step in the long series of
attacks upon religious and human liberties by a government
founded on terrorism and maintained by fear....
must not forget that true democracy means respect for
those who worship in other faiths than our own, whatever
that any government entitled to
We must not forget
may be.
the respect of the world must respect those who hold
different political beliefs from those of the group there in
takes a tragic instance to remind us of
Sometimes
power.
We
it
our
own
it
precious heritage.
attack on a minority group in any country is an attack on

democracies everywhere . Democracies are founded on tolerance
The
and on the protection of the liberties of minorities.
destruction of those liberties for any group attacks the very
Any
heart of self-government. The pogroms yesterday were

evidence that civilization in Germany has been abandoned.
Any attack on the helpless is an attack on civilization
itself
unfortunate victims of this terrifying mob violence

their friends and relatives everywhere, the people of
The civilized
this country extend their heartfelt sympathy.
world must express the most vehement protests against such
barbarism. We recognize the futility of appealing to the
leaders of the country where such outbursts are permitted.
But in the name of humanity, we appeal to the verdict of
world opinion.
Our appeal must be effective, lest such
barbarism spread through the world and cause the utter
destruction of civilization.
To the
and to
appeal to Christians everywhere to recognize that this

struggle is our struggle. Men of good-will everywhere must
stand together lest the forces of darkness overcome all of
We
us
In:
New
James
J.
York Times, November 12, 1938, page 4.

Walker,
Former
New
Tork City Mayor:
I thought of a visit to Europe and uppermost in my mind was

an occasion when I placed a wreath upon the tomb of the
That soldier is unknown.
His name
unknown German soldier.
is unknown. His religion is unknown. But now that unknown
soldier may have his aged father and mother driven across the
Continent by persecutions unknown to the civilized world.
56
That unknown soldier may have a sister who has been driven
Let us not be
out of her home and her savings confiscated.
The architect who could
emotional but let us not be blind.
build such unprecedented discrimination against a helpless
people that architect could build a hell on earth.
In:
New
John
W.

Studebaker,
The answer
U.S. Commissioner of Education:
to barbarism has always been enlightenment,
this is still the answer. We shall measure men of all

We shall not turn our eyes back to
by their humility.
Middle Ages.
In:
New
and
races
the
Charles Seymour,
Connecticut :
President of Yale University,
New Haven,
All civilized
peoples are appalled by the brutality of the

imposed by the German government on private
individuals, a brutality that betrays the noble German ideals
of the past. Not by reason of any political philosophy but
by the judgment of humanity itself such cruelty stands
measures
condemned

In:
New
John L. Lewis, presiding officer of the American Federation of

Labor convention:
At the opening session this morning Chairman
German
Government
"atrocities,
as a "mad,
indignities and
Lewis
criticized
bloodthirsty wolf" in the
brutalities"
now
being
inflicted
asserted that this nation may have to meet the

German dictator as he tries to extend his domain into the
"Western Hemisphere," and urged that if that day arrived labor
would be depended upon to protect American institutions .
the Jews.
He
the
on
I have every confidence that our government and our State

Department will make emphatic representations to the German
Government protesting the actions of that government in
permitting these atrocities to be inflicted on the Jewish
people
In:
New
"
57
William Green, President of the American Federation of Labor:
in scathing terms the action of Adolf

in
Germany in depriving 500,000 Jews in
Hitler's
that country of their political and civil rights and levying a
tax penalty on them of $400,000,000 as punishment for the action
of a maniacal Polish Jewish refugee for murdering Ernst vom Rath,
secretary of the German Embassy in Paris.
President Green denounced
Nazi Government
I cannot express the deep sense of horror I experienced over

It is
the treatment accorded Jewish people in Germany.
shocking to one's sense of justice.
It seems inconceivable that at this period in the development

of modern civilization the Jewish people should be subjected
to such inhuman treatment as press reports indicate.
In the name and in behalf of the millions of members of the
American Federation of Labor I register my vigorous protest
against the barbarous and brutal treatment accorded the
Jewish people in Germany.
In:
New
York Times
November 15,
1938,
page 1.
Miller, German-American group chairman of the

National League of American Citizens of Foreign Descent:
Augustus H.
citizens of German descent we must do our share

in expressing our indignation over those intolerable events
We
now unfortunately prevailing in the Germany of today.
German-American citizens do not want to be under the stigma
which the outrageous happenings in the Fatherland may place

As American
upon us
In:
New
...
Professor Johan J. Smertenko, Executive Director of the

Nonsectarian Anti-Nazi League:
At last, Hitler has disclosed exactly what he is after in
persecuting the Jews. In order to bolster up the crumbling
economic position of Nazi Germany, he has decided to
The 1 billion mark fine
pauperize the victims of his terror.
will complete the destruction of the entire Jewish race in
Germany and will leave a half million starving people who can
neither find
In:
New
work
York Times
nor
relief.
November 13,
58
1938,
page 5.
"Great Germany"
A
Polish Jew,
a boy
telling him that

frontier, victims of the
of 17, receives
postcard from his
they have been dumped on the Polish

sudden mass deportation order by the
German authorities to express protest against a ruling of the
Polish Government and displeasure against the attitude of Poland
in opposing German wishes on the Ruthenian question. The parents
cannot go back to Germany; they have nowhere to go in Poland.
The boy is himself a refugee, hiding with relatives because he
At 17 he has no permit to live
has no permit to live in France.
Half -crazed by the despair of his parents and his own
anywhere.
sufferings, he goes to the German Embassy, determined to shoot
the first representative of the German Government he meets . The
victim happens to be the Third Secretary. Unfortunately he dies
of his wounds, and the assailant is taken to a Paris prison,
parents
where he
is
now
awaiting
trial.
In revenge, reprisals are taken against the entire Jewish

In a day of terror surpassing
population of Germany and Austria.
anything even the Third Reich has seen, synagogues have been
burned, shops sacked and looted, homes raided, a number of
and thousands jailed.

In Vienna a new wave of.
over a people already broken and terrorized beyond
These victims have never seen Poland or Paris.
endurance.
They
were not Poles and Germans.
Nor were they set upon by "mobs."
The patriots arrived in automobiles, went about the work of
destruction with method and precision, wore the boots which go
with the uniform of Storm Troopers and other Nazi units. The
police looked on until, after fourteen hours of violence, the
orgy was officially called off by Dr. Goebbels .
citizens beaten

suicides
swept
Thus does a great Government take revenge for the act of a

maddened boy, a Government which exercises supreme and
unquestioned power over 80,000,000 people, boasts of the order
of Central
maintains and aspires to spread this order over
Recently this Government has extended its domain with
Europe.
all
it
the consent of the Western Powers, who acquiesced in its

bloodless victories as the prelude to European appeasement.
Instead they were the prelude to the scenes witnessed yesterday,
scenes which no man can look upon without shame for the
degradation of his species .
In j
New
York Times
November 11,
59
1938,
editorial
page.
"Nazi Day of Terror a Threat to
All Civilization"
It is difficult
to write calmly about what has happened in

one who has watched the
German people in the dark days of revolution and hunger they have
endured since the war, who has seen close the hopelessness of the
"little men" described in the novels written in monotone by Hans
Fallada and has tried to understand what otherwise would be
incomprehensible: how Hitler was able to create a mighty
movement by stirring up the dregs of bitterness, envy and hate
that rise from the bottom of any society in a period of defeat
and despair.
It is difficult because it is no longer a defeated
people, and the suffering they inflict on others now that they
are on top again passes all understanding and mocks all sympathy.
Germany.
It is especially difficult for
darkest day Germany experienced in the whole post-war

not so dark as Thursday.
In all the humiliations
experienced by a penalized nation, it has not been so humiliated
as on that day of terror when organized gangs recruited from the
ruling party pounded like an enemy army through the main streets
of German cities and systematically sacked the shops, the homes
All
and the altars of a helpless minority of German citizens.
the reporters on the ground agree as to the methodical character
of the terror.
They agree that in a day more property was
destroyed than in the revolution of 1918. Glass is scarce and
precious in Germany, yet the windows in nearly every Jewish store
and restaurant throughout the country were smashed to atoms .
The
period

was
Pitiable Exhibition
The German people were never more pitiable than when they
stood by and watched this thing done. For the raiders who were
let loose on the streets and given a day to sate the lowest
instincts of cruelty and revenge were indeed an enemy army. No
foreign invader could
have done more harm.
This
is
Germany
in
the hour of her greatest defeat, the best overcome by the worst.
While many protested at the outrages, and millions must have been
sickened and shamed by the crimes committed in their name, many
others looked on stolidly or approvingly while the hunters hunted
There are stories of mothers who took
and the wreckers worked.
their children to see the fun.
This highlights a tragedy more portentous than the tragedy

of the Jews. It means that the millions who detest this
brutality have lost the power to protest and that other millions
have no desire to protest because they have been worked on by
And this shows what the Nazi
years of anti-Semitic propaganda.
mentality plus the Nazi police power has done to an intelligent
people.
60
It is
quite true that the cruelty and violence exhibited in

latent in every country. No nation is free of
primitive passions and prejudices that can be exploited by
We have all experienced
unscrupulous or reckless leaders.
The
outbreaks of the mob spirit and realized its savage force.
difference is that in most countries the fundamental aim and
purpose of government is to keep this lurking beast under
control. Civilization is a process of subduing the savage in man
and teaching him to live by the rule of reason.
In National
Germany are
Socialist
Germany the
mob
spirit is deliberately cultivated,
canalized and employed as an arm of government. As in Thursday's

orgy of sadism, it can be turned on and off at will.
Terror
May React
lift
But suppose the time comes when those who

the lid can't
down again?
Terror as an instrument of policy is not a
Once, in Russia, at a time when there was a great
new weapon.
round-up of class enemies and all the poor remnants of the
submerged classes quaked, the writer asked a high Soviet official
why a strong government found it necessary to use this method
"Because when
again and again.
was used against us in the old
was effective,"
he answered.
"If you cut a swath of
days
terror through the population at regular intervals, you can keep
the opposition down."
screw
it
it
it
But the dosage of terror not only has to be repeated.

It
to be increased, as Russia has demonstrated under two
tyrannies, or it does not work. Therefore it is an invariable
symptom of the weakness of the system in which it has to be used.
A day of "punishment" for the Jews was permitted immediately
after Hitler came to power to satisfy the violence he had aroused
among his followers, and it is noteworthy that the raids made
then did not compare in extent or intensity with the present
Does that mean that the dissatisfaction among the
pogrom.

has
disciples demands more and more outlet? And what would

this savagery, whether cultivated or suppressed, breaks
and
turns on the leaders themselves?
happen
bounds
if
This isn't very probable at present, but Germany's Black

Thursday suggests either that the scapegoat has to be publicly
beaten for internal reasons or that a whole people have become
callous to savagery.
And this is a danger far greater than antiSemitism on the rampage.
It raises up in the heart of Europe, in
a civilized country, a threat to the civilization of the world.
In:
New
York Times, November 12, 1938,
61
editorial
page.
Excerpts Selected from Christian Newspapers

In an editorial
Companion said:
entitled,
"It Is
Hard
and
Publications:
to Believe,"
The Lutheran
The recent brutal attacks on Jewish lives and property in

Germany were described by Dr. Goebbels as " typical,
We do not believe
spontaneous, popular demonstration.'
They bear the earmarks of official Nazi planning and
constitute a deliberate act of government policy. They do
it.
not
reflect
the
spirit
of the
From an editorial in The Friend,

"The Necessity of Pessimism" :
German
Quaker
people....
publication, entitled
which comes out of Germany can hardly fail to

spread the deepest gloom.
It is possible, of course, that
the newspaper stories are exaggerations of the truth, but
they are accompanied by photographs that are most convincing.
Perhaps the most distressing was the picture of destroyed and
looted buildings, with the faces of the passers-by wreathed
The news
in smiles. It is a terrible thing for a power-mad dictator

to seek to ruin thousands of innocent persons, but it is a
far more terrible thing for a great people to give
wholehearted assent to such efforts, and to find brutality
amusing.
The smiles on those faces haunt us....
Christian Century published the most comprehensive and

continuous coverage of the events in Germany from the shooting of
vom Rath on November 7, 1938, to November 13, 1938, when the
looting and burning and the arrests and persecutions of Jews
slowed through the remainder of 19 38. Accurately, the Century
had noted that Kristallnacht had taken place on the fifteenth
anniversary of the beerhall putsch and that Hitler was in Munich
to give a speech. That the speech was never given on that
November-ninth evening is now known.
After a hurried conference
with Goebbels, Hitler left early....

The
At opposite poles in the Protestant community in the United

States, Advance (Congregationalist ) and The Sunday School Times
(non-denominational fundamentalist) gave major editorial space to
the events of November 9-13 in Germany.
The editor of Advance
wrote
The
Jew in Paris, crazed by the

and his people, has led to reprisals
Germany that have shocked the world
group brutality and betrayal of every
humanity, and government. What the world
thoughtless deed of
suffering of his parents

against Jewish people in
by
their calculated
justice,
element of
a young
62
has witnessed is not government, but the unrestraint of moral

and political perverts.
is incredible that the German
people as a whole should approve of what was done, though one
is sadly forced to conclude that Germany has gone far in
decadence and degradation as a nation....
It
editor of The Sunday School Times devoted the two pages

regularly assigned for the lead editorial to the events in
Consistent with the theological commitment of this
Germany.
periodical, the editorial headline read, "Germany Brutally
The
Fulfills
Prophecy."
that rang out at Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, in 1914,

Archduke Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated, was
heard around the world, for it precipitated the Great War.
Another shot is reverberating through the world today, for on
November 7 Herschel Grynszpan, seventeen year old Polish Jew,
wounded Ernst Vom Rath, Third Secretary of the German
Embassy at Paris, and two days later the German attache died.
The echoes of that shot might have been shortlived
Nazi
Germany had not turned upon the Jews in brutal reprisals that
have outraged the civilized world.
The shot
when
if

In: Ross, Robert W. So It Was True: The American Protestant

Minneapolis:
Press and the Nazi Persecution of the Jews.
University of Minnesota Press, 1980, pages 109-116.
a week after the Kristallnacht , Pastor

"
Jan preached to his congregation in Swabia:
Houses
of worship, sacred to others, have been burned down with
impunity men who have locally served our nation and
conscientiously done their duty, have been thrown into
concentration camps simply because they belong to a
different race. Our nation's infamy is bound to bring about
Divine punishment.'
On
J.
16
von
November 1938,
Dragged
out of his Bible class by a Nazi mob,
Pastor Jan
brutally beaten, then thrown on to the roof of a shed.

just as, a week earlier,
mob then smashed his vicarage,
many
Jewish houses had been smashed.
imprisoned
Pastor Jan
was
The
so
was
In: Gilbert, Martin.

"The Seeds of a Terrible Vengeance."
The
Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1985, page 73.
World War.
New York:
63
that the members of the Board of Foreign Missions

Resolved:
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, profoundly shocked by the
unspeakable persecution in Germany of members of the race to
which humanly speaking the Savior of all men belonged, in the

name of outraged humanity do now most vigorously re-emphasize
the historic Christian attitude of love and goodness against
all this wicked hatred and cruelty and express their deep
sympathy ... for the suffering Jews....
In:
New
York Times, November 21,
Rev. Dr. William H. Roberts,

79th Street, New York City:
19
38, page 16.
First Baptist
Church,
Broadway
and
deplore and denounce the assassination of the German

representative in Paris by a half -demented lad, but to avenge
his act by organized ferocity against the whole race is to
trample the ideals of civilization under foot and to adopt
the law of the jungle.
We
In:
New
York Times
November 21,
Bishop Edwin H. Hughes,

Churches of Christ:
page 16.
representative of the Federal Council of
Reich, the outrages appear to have two forms.

represented by a deliberate legal process
intended to hinder the Jews in a commercial way and doubtless
so to harry them as to drive them from the land ....
The
second form is mob-like rather than law-like.
A poor,
misguided boy, tormented and probably demented, fires a hasty
shot and drops the spark into the magazine of terror.
At
once the revenge speeds away to visit itself upon the
innocent who had no more to do with the youth's mad deed than
In the
The

1938,
German
first is
did any one of
my
radio
listeners....
of - us who have traveled in Germany cannot believe that

these dreadful happenings are sanctioned by the people who
have laid emphasis upon the glory of their culture. . . .
Many
In:
New
"Catholics
Register Strong Protest on Jewish Persecution"
Most Reverend Peter L. Ireton: Tonight we speak not with

bitterness but with sadness. The world is shocked. Our
sense of justice is outraged by the persecution of the Jew in
We speak with sadness for the desecration of our
Germany. ...
nature by the few who have risen to lord it over the many,
64
to which an insensate
and for the degradation

descend
....
mob
can
Right Reverend Joseph Corrigan, S.T.Dx Where, in the light

of the fury of inhumanity raging in Germany.. lis the
tolerance of our vaunted advance in civilization? Where is
the brotherhood of man enjoined by Divine command? Where is
the Christianity that once reigned in a Christian nation?....
The world should not forget nor cease to protest, with
earnest sincerity and growing vigor, until it be cleansed of
the poisonous cancer even now gnawing at the very vitals of
organized society and just government.
Hia Excellency,
Persecution,
the Most Reverend
like
John Mark Gannon:
crawling serpent, has raised
its
loathsome head in every age and among almost every race of

man to the horror and paralyzing fright of those who look
on.... In our very hour of existence .. .we the most
civilized, free, cultured, are forced to look with burning
shame and indignation on scenes of mad madness, protected
There
rowdyism and racial and religious persecution....
appears to have broken through the veneer of modern
civilization
connected series of violent,
cruel hates which

without mercy or shame on their
helpless victims....
This horrible specter of persecution
has broken loose in Germany where the Jewish people, a small
helpless minority, less than 1 percent of the population,
are subjected to the fierce passions of the mobs, the harsh,
unjust decrees of dictators, and the almost total loss of
civic and moral rights. In the face of such injustice toward
the Jews of Germany, I express my revulsion, disgust and
a
dictators
modern
inflict

grief ....
His Excellency, the Most Reverend John J. Mitty, Archbishop

Twenty years ago we laid away our
San Francisco:
implements of war, but we did little to lay away those inner
things of mind and heart by which those weapons were designed
and created and set in deadly action; and those creative
powers of mind and heart have reasserted themselves again in
all their evil, so that in this latest day of civilization
the frontiers of every country are studded with all the
mussed instruments of death and overhead the sky is black
with the buzzards of war waiting for carrion.
of
The civilized world stands shocked

Governor Alfred Smith:
at the recent news coming from Germany and quite naturally is
asking
some
questions.
Can
it
possible that Germany,
be
after producing some of the world's greatest scientists,

writers, physicians and statesmen, is becoming a barren
nation,
it
intellectually, culturally
possible that the rank
and
file
scientifically.
Can
of the German people

desire to set back the hands of the clock of progress to the
dark ages? Can it be possible that there are not
restricting influences in the German official family? Can it
be
65
and
possible that nobody in a position of authority cares

about public opinion throughout the civilized world? If this
is possible, then all we can say is that Germany has fallen
from her high position in the family of nations into the
hands of a band of ruffians....
be
from the transcript of a nation-wide broadcast

and sponsored by the Catholic University of America,
Participants included Rt.
Washington, D.C., November 17, 1938.
Rev. Monsignor Joseph M. Corrigan, S.T.D., Rector of the
University; Rev. Dr. Maurice S. Sheehy, S.T.B., head of the
University's Department of Religious Education; Archbishop John
Mitty of San Francisco; former Governor Alfred E. Smith of New
York; Bishop Peter L. Ireton of Richmond, Virginia; and Bishop
John M. Gannon of Erie, PA.
Excerpts
originated
J.
Excerpts Selected from Jewish Newspapers

The
three major
Journal,
New
York Yiddish
and Forward,
all
dailies,
and
Publications:
The Day,
reacted with alarm.
Morning
The newspaper, The Day, gave the most complete news coverage of
the three and editorialized daily on the plight of German Jewry
Day after day, bold
from November 11 through November 26.
headlines on the front page and on several inside pages screamed
the highlights of the dreadful story; news reports supplied the

grim details, and columnists interpreted the significance of the
tragedy .

all,
however, the readers were moved by the editorial pen

Most of
of Samuel Margoshes, the passionate advocate for his people, who
empathized with his suffering brethren in Germany. . . .
that have destroyed the synagogues and schools

our blood boil, do not give us rest and force us to take
to the streets and scream in pain so the whole world should
The flames
make
hear.
. . .
quiet for some time, hoping that the Nazis would

of their murderous ways, believing in quiet diplomacy
We
and being dubious about the efficacy of our own protests.
But now our patience is at endl
have been patient.
We
have been
We
can no
tire
longer be silent.
intercessions
behalf.
rely
We cannot
We are dealing
on
private
here with an
enemy which will not give up our sacrifices .. .which begrudges
us life and which misses no opportunity to embitter our
existence
on our
....
Let our leaders lead
Let them not delay and postpone.
66
Let the General Jewish Council meet and deliberate

The Jewish masses are waiting to go out into
immediately.
the streets, to close their places of business, to stop all
work, to declare a fast and to demonstrate to the entire
world that we will no longer allow ourselves to be
slaughtered by a barbaric regime.
Those who do not deal immediately
Time will not stand still.
The
with this crises forfeit their right to leadership.
masses are waiting; they will not wait for long.
The Morning Journal reflected the same concern and sense of

The editors were deeply
urgency that one could feel in The Day.
concerned, single-minded in their mourning over the tragedy, and
their feelings accurately reflected the mood that prevailed in
their community, especially the religious community.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency Daily News Bulletin (JTA), as the
source of news in English for the Anglo-Jewish press, served
its function competently in the months of November and December.
The German-Jewish tragedy was the main subject for most of the
took up most of a six-to ten-page issue,
period.
Often
The brutal facts
expanded from the normal four-page bulletin....
from abroad were covered; the world Jewish response was reported;
the American public reaction was recorded. . . .
main
it
publication of the American Jewish Congress, known as

the Congress Bulletin, reflected the most comprehensive reaction
to the crisis. From November 18 through December 30, its fourpage issues were almost entirely devoted to reportage and
analysis of the tragedy. In the December 2 issue there was a
day-by-day record of events from November 8 through November 30
entitled "A Month in Nazi Germany. ' This included a lengthy
report of the brutal beatings in Sachsenhausen .

The weekly
The magazine's response was emotional and intellectual.

Outrage
and indignation, compassion and pity, deep concern and a sense of
urgency were
reflected by the editors and evoked in the
readers. While no specific way of alleviating the plight of
oppressed brothers was suggested, the need to act was clearly
enunciated. The entire episode was viewed as the greatest crisis
in Jewish history. Not only was German Jewry being destroyed,
but
was clear that other Jewries in Europe were also in
all
it
jeopardy, for other states "seek the solution of their internal

problems through a forcible migration and expulsion of Jews' a
reference to Poland, Romania, and Hungary.
The
frightening implications of Kristallnacht
were
set forth
almost prophetically by the Congress Bulletin in an editorial on

December 16, 1938.
Commenting on the spread of Nazism to Poland,
Romania, and a proposed "independent Ukraine,' the writer
asserted that this "means Nazi domination over a Jewish
population of some six million people.
It means the total ruin
67
of the Jewries of Poland, Ukraine, Rumania [sic] and others

the actual extermination of European Jewry. '
--
Jewish Record did its usual competent job of

recording the event and the reactions and of interpreting the
Its November 1938 issue contained a special supplement on
news.
events in Germany from November 7 through November 14, in
addition to reports on world reactions, statements by leading
Americans, and a record of the position taken by the General
The best summary of all the material and the
Jewish Council....
The Contemporary
interpretations
January
on
Kristallnacht
and
its
aftermath
issue of this bimonthly chronicle.
1939
Stephen Wise's Opinion was
... totally
was
absorbed in the
in the
crisis.
The
issue featured reactions from Wise himself, two

Smith Leiper and the frequent contributor,
(Henry
Protestants
John Haynes Holmes, in his column "Through Gentile Eyes') and a
Wise's article began with a tribute to
Hindu (Taraknath Das).
the American reaction and particularly to President Roosevelt,
This was a theme that Wise
"the voice of America's conscience.'
It
was to sound again and again during the Holocaust.
represented the thinking and judgment of most American Jews at
December 1938

the time.
The Jewish Frontier, led by the patriot-polemicist Hayim

Greenberg, provided one of the strongest responses to this crisis
and, for that matter, to all the news of the Holocaust as it
In its lead editorial in the December 1938 issue...
developed.
the writer deplored the madness of a world that accepted
Germany's right to plunder and expel part of her citizenry and
then close its doors to the victims. There were 600,000 German
Jews to be saved ... .This issue had five editorials on various
In one of them, the writer applauded
aspects of the crises.
Roosevelt's statement and recall of Wilson but, he asserted,
words were not enough.
America must admit refugees from a
Germany
that "had
now become
a huge
Concentration
Camp.
'
Reconstructionist reflected the crisis editorially, urging a

strong American Jewish response.
The National Jewish Monthly
Its
demonstrated concern over the seriousness of Kristallnacht.
December 1928 issue recorded the Christian world's reaction to
Its lead editorial,
the event rather than the event itself.
"In all these dreadful years,
entitled "The Pogrom,' stated:
Jews have been speaking for themselves vainly; now the world was
speaking for justice to the Jew. '
The
organized in
four major Jewish
the American Jewish Committee,,
defense organizations that day:
The American Jewish Congress, B'nai B'rith, and the Jewish Labor
Committee, was mandated to coordinate activities of the four
organizations (and eventually additional groups) that were
concerned specifically with safeguarding the equal rights of
The General
Jewish Council,
Pittsburgh, June
Jews
13,
1938,
an umbrella group
and comprising the
68
In its regularly scheduled meeting of November 13, Henry Monsky,

president of B'nai B'rith, offered four proposed courses of
action in response to the crisis:
1 .
That the General Jewish Council issue a statement

addressed to American Jewry and the American people.
efforts be made through various newspapers, both

locally and in smaller communities, to gather and
2. That
express the opinion of prominent people in regard to the

German
situation.
3. That members of the Council should communicate with

such non-Jewish agencies as possible to seek their
advice and cooperation.
4.
That a day of prayer and intercession be appointed, at

which Jews and Gentiles together should gather and
express their feelings of sorrow at the present tragedy
and suffering of our people.
of prayer, already a matter of consultation between the

Council of Churches and the National Conference of Jews
and Christians, was set for Sunday, November 20.
The day
Federated

The
following [public statement]
was
approved:
The world is aghast at the latest news which has come from
In the hour of their oppression we offer our fellow
Germany.
Jews in Germany the assurance of our deepest sympathy and
understanding. In the midst of our grief we derive a measure
of solace from the fact that the world has come to realize
that this barbarism directed against Jews is violence against

the whole of humanity.
This reaction of the entire world is
a recognition
that we are here confronted with an issue which
goes far beyond the persecution and torture of a particular
minority and that today it is civilization itself that is
under attack.
All Americans Protestants, Catholics, and
Jews alike have reacted to these hideous accounts from
abroad as a national calamity.
of the public protests that were staged in the
following Kristallnacht were the following:
Some
A two-hour
the German
River.
of about 150 pickets on November 14, as

"Bremen' docked at 45th Street and the Hudson
staged by the American League for Peace and
demonstration
liner
This
Democracy,
weeks
was
fellow-traveler organization.
"massive demonstrations' in Columbus Circle were announced in

under the auspices of the Jewish People's
Committee and the American League for Peace and Democracy, but
neither of these was reported upon in any other newspaper.
Two
the
"Frieheit,'
69
large protest was called by Fiorello LaGuardia, mayor of

York, in Carnegie Hall on December 7. Sponsored by nonJews, it was nevertheless actively supported by the Yiddish press
It
and, behind the scenes, by the General Jewish Council.
attracted several thousand listeners both inside and outside the
A
New
hall.
The United Wholesale and Warehouse Workers Union and the Down
dry goods stores
town Dry Goods Jobbers Association closed
for half the day on November 20. Meetings were held during that
all
half -day to plan
how
to strengthen
the anti-Nazi boycott.
only large demonstration was held under the auspices of the

Jewish People's Committee on November 21 in Madison Square
Twenty thousand jammed the Garden, according to the
Garden.
The
York Times, and an additional 5,000 listened through

loudspeakers in the street, according to The Day.
Addressed by a
variety of speakers ... the meeting produced a resolution
condemning Nazi barbarity, praising Roosevelt's statement, urging
a total boycott of German goods, and asking Roosevelt to call an
international conference of England, France, and the Soviet Union
to solve the refugee problem that had been created.
New
In:
New
Lookstein, Haskell.
Were We Our Brothers'
York: Vintage Books, 1985, pages 45-63.
Rabbi William F. Rosenblum, Temple
Israel,
New
Keepers?
York City:
plight of the Jews in Germany is tragic and

indescribable, and the prayer that we offer up for them
comes from the very depths of Jewish and Christian sympathy
and commiseration.
But I find it in my heart as a rabbi to
pray for a group of people in Germany who are more deeply
troubled and in greater pain than the Catholics and Jews
whom the Nazis are despoiling
and destroying.
I pray for the

The
hundreds of thousands of decent Germans who want to cry out

against the terror and are compelled at sword's point or
rifle threat to keep quiet.
In:
New
Rabbi Samuel H. Goldenson,
Temple Emanu-El , New
York City:
In this saddest and blackest day in Jewish history, let us

hold fast to those things which belong to the spirit. The
day of triumph can only come if we remain faithful to this
spirit. It is a costly wrong, yet I would rather a thousand
times be the brother of the hunted than those who persecute.
In:
New
York Times,
November 14,
70
1938,
page 23.

Suggested Program Ideas
for Schools
71
and Community Observances
Suggested Program
Ideas for Schools and Community Observances
A. Introduction
The following section is designed to suggest several ways
in which the event of "Kristallnacht " can be commemorated in the
All the materials which

community and learned in the schools.
appear in this booklet - the historical overview, documentary
evidence, eyewitness accounts, responses, photograph, map,
bibliography and filmography - provide invaluable sources of
information for the preparation of programs and lesson plans .
Recognizing the different needs of program organizers and

teachers, we have divided this section into two parts,
suggesting different activities for each. Our suggestions should
only be taken as a starting point in formulating activities.
We
responded to the needs of educators and program organizers in
this way because the available resources vary locally, as do the
circumstances which allow for students and audiences to learn
about the event.
We
hope that you

you develop
materials
will
share your experiences
with us.
Please contact:
and the
Isaiah Kuperstein
Director of Education
Mr.
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council

2000
Suite
L Street, N.W.
588

Washington,
Tel:
B.
(202)
D.C. 20036
653-9220
For Schools
Teachers may be able to integrate a lesson or unit on

"Kristallnacht" within a variety of subject matter - American
History, World Cultures, World History, Social Studies, English
Literature, Sociology, Political Science and, of course, the
Although the material is easily suited for junior and
Holocaust.
high school students,

adapt
it
for
elementary school teachers may be able to

younger students as well.
When integrating the material found in this packet into a

curriculum, we assume that the lesson plan or unit will properly
include the component of objectives, activities, and evaluation.
Teachers may want to copy any portion of this packet for
distribution in the class to emphasize a point. The maps,
photographs, and documentary evidence is especially recommended

for that purpose.
We urge teachers
to use the bibliography
provided in the packet to gain a deeper understanding of the
Holocaust
72
We would like to help teachers organize their material by

presenting two important elements in the formulation of any
lesson plan or unit:
(1)
(2)
Concepts on "Kristallnacht
cognitive
which may be turned into
"
effective objectives;
and
and,
may be turned into

the classroom or be assigned as research
Discussion questions which
activities for
projects .
Concepts
event
The
1.
2.
3.

following concepts are
based on the
history of the
"Kristallnacht" was the first physical attack against

the Jews outside the borders of Germany; it included
The event
Austria and the occupied Sudetenland.
followed a five-year period of Nazi government
legislation which progressively diminished the
political, economic, and social position of Jews.
"Kristallnacht" occurred in
"Kristallnacht"
7 .
for
more than a thousand years
was
by "neighbors"
watched
the world.
well organized event which was

and widely reported in the media
"Kristallnacht" created a new sense of hopelessness in

the minds of Third Reich Jews, as thousands of them
tried to flee from their homelands in unprecedented
numbers
6.
in
was an officially sanctioned act of

violence by the Nazi government of Germany to
eliminate a minority of people who had been citizens
of the state and whose history in the country had
throughout
5.
western society which was

from
"Kristallnacht"
been recorded
4.
esteemed for its culture and which was transformed

a democracy to a dictatorship when the Nazi party
power legally took over the reigns of government.
"Kristallnacht" catapulted the issue of a growing

international refugee problem in the 1930 's as world
leaders tried, but failed, to arrive at a solution.
Though American public opinion was strongly roused and
voiced in reaction to the event of "Kristallnacht", the
American government did not prevent the Nazis from
carrying out their plans to eliminate the Jewish
people.
73
Discussion Questions
Consider the following issues or questions for discussion
research.
1.
2 .
or
do you suppose, did the Nazi government enact the

violence against the Jews following the assassination
of Vom Rath? What could it gain from it? Why did it
initiate it at this time?
Why,
Imagine the burning of a synagogue or church in your

How would you feel?
How would you respond
to the people who belong to the church? What would you
or could you do to help those people afterward?
community.
3.
Given the political and economic circumstances of the

time what options could the Jews in the Third Reich take
following the event of Kristallnacht? List each option
and
it
with historical information.
4.
contrast the U.S. response to the Jewish

refugee problem of the 1930 's with current refugee
In one column list
problems in South America or Asia.
the responses of the American government in the 1930 's
and in the other column list the responses of today.
5.
After reading the eyewitness accounts in the booklet

describe the feelings and reactions of the Jews who
were victimized.
6 .

support
7 .
8.
Compare and
the telegraph order of Heydrich and pick out

the key phrases and words which enacted the violence.
Note the careful use of words by Heydrich.
Examine
Review the responses of Americans to the event and list

Note the words
the types of reactions which emerged.
used by Americans to express their feelings .
did the majority of German people

not respond vigorously against the violence after it
occurred? For each reason be prepared to support it
Why, do you suppose,
with historical information.

9.
Who were
some
speak out?
10.
of the Germans who denounced the violence

What did they say and why did they
of Kristallnacht?
some of the Americans who denounced the

What did they say and
violence of Kristallnacht?
did they speak out?
Who were
74
why
C. For the Community
Organizers of community events and programs are encouraged

to coordinate any one or a number of events the week of
November 6-13, 1988, to commemorate and educate
interdenominational and interfaith audiences about the history
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial
and lessons of Kristallnacht .
Council has invited the participation of the governor of each
state and territory and the mayors of cities throughout the
United States to issue commemoration proclamations and to
encourage community -wide observances.
The
following types of
programs
may be
organized:
Lecture or Lecture series;

Film series;
Commemoration
ceremony
in
church or synagogue;
Display or exhibit of Holocaust books, photographs,

and/or artifacts;
documents
Oral history project recording the stories of

eyewitnesses to the event.
organization within the community may embark upon a program.
In doing so, you may want to consider the following questions:

Any
To
Example:
goals of the program?
provide awareness, sensitize, document.
1.
What are the
2.
What type
educate,
of audience do we wish to attract? Example:

Students, interfaith groups, a particular part of the
community.
3.
Which
organizations
implementing,
Church,
Example:
office.
4 .
5 .
would join us in formulating,

and funding the program?
synagogue, interfaith council, mayor's
publicizing,
What are the
anticipated costs of the program
are the funds going to come from?

speakers, space rental, publicity,
and where
costs of
film rental.
Where should the program be held to gain maximum

Example:
Community
exposure and educational value?
center, cultural hall, sanctuary of

synagogue
6 .
Example:
What
church or
printed resources and materials are needed for

Information sheets,
Example:
distribution?
bibliographies , programs
75
What are the one, two, or three issues to be addressed

in the program? See the Concepts in the section above
7.
for
some
guidance.
What are the human

Speakers,
Example:
8 .
projectionists
To
resources needed to lead the program?

discussion leaders, film
help organizers further,
we
suggest that such local
libraries, synagogues, community centers, Jewish

Federations, interfaith councils, bureaus of education, teacher
institutions
as
resource centers
If
a
recommend
be
contacted.
Holocaust center or organization is located nearby, we

that contact be made with that institution for advice

and help in implementing a program.

Most likely, the local
Holocaust center has already initiated a program to observe
"Kristallnacht . " For reference, we are listing the names of
such centers geographically (see Resources in this booklet).
76

Study Aids
77
Highlights of Events,
1938:
March
13,
1938
March
13
Incorporation
April
22
Decree
June
July
26
14
through January 30,1939
of Austria (Anschluss)
against "Camouflage of Jewish
Industries
"
Decree on the Reporting of Jewish

Assets: preparation for exclusion of
Jewish presence in the German economy.
Decree
mandating the registration
Jewish enterprises.
Evian Conference:

September
October
November
about immigration
fleeing Nazi
Germany.
23
Introduction of identity cards for Jews

effective January 1, 1939.
25
Licenses of Jewish doctors to expire on

September
August
international
diplomatic conference
quotas for refugees
of
30,
1938.
17
Jewish middle names of "Sara" and

"Israel" required to be entered on all
personal documents, prescribed by law to
become effective January 1, 1939.
27
Removal Jewish lawyers from the bar;

prohibited from appearing in German law
courts .
29
Munich Agreement - England and France

agree to the annexation of the
Sudetenland by Nazi Germany.
Troops
begin to occupy territory.
Passports of Jews are marked
28
Expulsion of 17,000 Polish Jewish

residents of Germany into Poland, where
they were held in camps and towns just
across Polish border.
Grynszpan, whose parents had

been expelled from Germany back to Poland
on October 28, shot Ernst vom Rath, Third
Secretary at the German Embassy in Paris .
Herschel
78
"J."
Sporadic
7-8
November
pogroms
in Kurhessen.
Vandalizing and looting of synagogues

shops in Kassel.
9-10
12
Vom
Rath died
and
of his wounds at 4:00 p.m.
Organized pogroms throughout
Germany,
Austria and the occupied Sudetenland

continuing through the 10th.
Goering declares indemnity payment by

Jews of $400 million for damages; the
elimination of Jews from economic life
from all cultural establishments.

30,000 Jews have been arrested and
sent to concentration camps.
and
Some

1939:
15
Jewish children no longer allowed to

attend German schools.
28
Introduction of residential restrictions

for Jews by annulling their tenants'
r ights .
December
Decree of Compulsory Transfer of Jewish

Businesses known as Aryanization .
January
30
Hitler
addresses Reichstag and predicts

the extermination of the Jewish race in
Europe in case of war.
79
Photograph
NAME
Wiesbaden
Streets
ARCHITECT:
Philipp
DEDICATED:
STRUCTURE
DESIGN:
and Schulberg
1869
The style was unusual for the cityscape of

Wiesbaden.
In principle, the building was
designed with a central structure, over a
square layout, topped with a high central
cupola; on each of the four corners were
eight-cornered towers with onion cupolas. All
the cupolas contained stars.
The decorations
of the building were based on oriental
designs, but included rosettes in the western
window and Gothic-type designs in the tracery.
slightly rising terrain, the property required

extensive substructures which were designed to form
terraced areas around the building.
From a
distance, it appeared that the synagogue was sitting
on a pedestal .
With
Hammer-Schenk,
Hans
Hamburg:
Photograph
- corner of Michelsberg
Hoffman
SYNAGOGUE
LANDSCAPE:

Synagogue
Harold.
"Wiesbaden."
Christian Verlag,
1981,
Synagogues in Deutschland.
pages 307-308.
courtesy of the Leo Baeck Institute,
80
New
York.


SH(] .)fl?U fMOU AO
BuxiiSTxqrid
'AuEdmop
AU.l SHfl!)()!)VNAS
^JQA
Z8
-Z86I
<i
HMHWUAON si:i.I
a>Ed
LZ
'

83
HOLOCAUST
RESOURCE
CENTERS
AND ORGANIZATIONS
STATE/ CITY/ ZIP
INSTITUTION
TELEPHONE
AZ Tucson
85711
Tucson Holocaust Commission

635 North Craycroft
(602)
327-7957
CA Los
90048
Angeles
American Congress of Jews
(213)
938-7881
CA Los
90046
Angeles
Inc.
(213)
650-1774
Museum
(213)
852-1234
(213)
553-9036
(415)
751-6040
(415)
723-1754
(303)
758-0954
(303)
871-3022
(203)
432-1879
(202)
523-3340
Moore
6534
Drive
Friends of Le Chambon,
Suite 784
Sunset Boulevard
8033
Martyrs Memorial and
CA Los
90048
Angeles
CA Los
90035
Angeles
Simon Wiesenthal Center

9760 West Pico Boulevard
CA San
94118
Francisco
Holocaust
Calif
601
CA Stanford
94305
CO
Wilshire Boulevard
6505
Denver
80237
Center of Northern
14th Avenue
Hoover
Institution
Stanford University
Alternatives in Religious
Education
S. Oneida

3945
CO
Denver
Holocaust
Awareness
Institute
80208
University of Denver
Center for Judaic Studies
CT New Haven
06520
Fortunoff Video Archive for

Hoi. Test.
Room 331C
Sterling Memorial Library
Yale University
DC
Washington
20408
DC
Washington
20036
National Archives and Records

Adm.
8th
U.S.
&
Suite
2000
Pennsylvania
Holocaust
717
L Street,
84
Avenue,
NW
Memorial Council
N.W.
(202)
822-6464
HOLOCAUST
STATE/ CITY/ ZIP
FL
Fort
33901
FL
Myers
Maitland
32751
FL
North Miami
33181
RESOURCE
INSTITUTION
33181
GA
Atlanta
30322
Atlanta
GA
30309

IL
Skokie
(813)
275-3554
(407)
628-0555
Holocaust Documentation
(305)
Education Center
N.E. 151st Sts . & Biscayne Blvd.
940-5690
3628
Evans Avenue
Holocaust Memorial Resource

& Education
851 North Maitland Avenue
Intl
Brookline
Newton
02159
MA
Peabody
01960
MA
Waltham
02154
of Children Jewish
Fred Roberts Crawford
(404)
727-7545
Zachor Holocaust Center

1753 Peachtree Road, N.E.
(404)
873-1661
(312)
677-4680
(617)
232-1595
University
Emory
c/o Atlanta Jewish Federation

Holocaust
of
Memorial Foundation
Illinois
Main Street
Facing History & Ourselves

Nat ' 1 Foundation
25
MA
Network
940-5690
4255
02146
Univ. - N. Miami
Int'l
Holocaust Survivors
(305)
N.E. 151st & Biscayne, Trade Ctr.
Fla Int'l Univ. - N. Miami Campus
60076
MA
TELEPHONE
Jewish Federation of Lee County
Florida
FL North Miami
AND ORGANIZATIONS
CENTERS
Kennard
Road
of Jewish Education-Boston
Bureau
4th Floor
(617)
965-7350
Center-North Shore
Street, Room 108
(617)
535-0003
333 Nahanton
Street
Holocaust
76
Lake
McCarthy School
American Jewish
Society
Thornton Road
85
Historical
(617) 891-8110
HOLOCAUST
STATE/ CITY/ ZIP
MA
Worcester
College of the Holy Cross

Department of History
(617)
793- 2465
Baltimore
Baltimore Jewish Council
(301)
752- 2630
(301)
984- 1611
Rockville
20852
ME
101 West Mount
Board
11710
Newcastle
04553
Holocaust
Royal Avenue
of Jewish Education
Hunter's Lane
Maine
Human
Rights Center
Box 422B
Rural Route
Bloomfield
(313)
661- 0840
Holocaust Resource Center

8200 West 33rd Street
(612)
935- 0316
St. Louis
St. Louis Center for Holocaust

Studies
(314)
12 Millstone Campus Drive
432- 0020
Raleigh
North Carolina Council on

Holocaust
2230 Lash Avenue
(919)
787- 9232

Fiske Annex
Keene State College
(603)
357- 0796
NJ Fairfield
Jewish Education Assoc.

of Metrowest
39 Plymouth Street
(201)
575- 6050
NJ Lawrenceville
Holocaust
Center
(609)
896- 5345
(201)
842- 1709
MN
Minneapolis
55426
MO
63146
NC
27606
NH
Keene
03431
07006
08648
NJ
Lincroft
07738
Holocaust
(207) 586- 5225
Memorial Center
MI West
48322

AND ORGANIZATIONS
TELEPHONE
21201
MD
CENTERS
INSTITUTION
01610
MD
RESOURCE
6602
West Maple
Road
Genocide Resource
2083 Lawrenceville Road

Rider College
Center for Holocaust
Studies
Brookdale
Community
College
HOLOCAUST
RESOURCE
AND
ORGANIZATIONS
STATE/ CITY / ZIP
INSTITUTION
NJ

Study
&
Interfaith
Memorial
Mahwah
07430
NJ
Randolph
07869
NJ
Somerville
08876
NJ
Union
07083
NV
Las Vegas
89109
Albany
NY
12230
TELEPHONE
Genocide
505 Ramapo Valley Road

Ramapo College of New Jersey
Holocaust
Council
Route
375
10
Box 3300
527-3049
Gertrude Sperling Holocaust

(702)
Resource Center
1030 East Twain Avenue
Jewish Federation of Las Vegas
732-0556
Resource Center
College of
New
Jersey
York State Holocaust
New
Center
(518)
474-5801
(718)
631-6291
(212)
295-0200
(718)
338-6766
Holocaust Study Center of Jewish

Experience
(718)
449-0803
Room 9B52
York State Cultural Educ

Center
Holocaust Studies Center

Bronx High School of Science
Archives
Resource Center
Queensborough
75
Brooklyn
366-3113
(201)
Holocaust
Kean
NY
Bronx
10468
11224
(201)
526-1200
Holocaust
NY
489-2463
(201)
Raritan Valley Community

College
NY
Bayside
11364
Brooklyn
NY
11230
(201)
Raritan Valley Community College
P.O.
New
CENTERS
West 205th
Community
2881
West 12th
87
&
College
Street

Doc. & Res.
1610 Avenue
Street
Studies
HOLOCAUST
STATE/ CITY/ ZIP
INSTITUTION
Brooklyn
NY
11235
Masada
NY
Getzville
14068
Holocaust
The Holocaust
NY
Mineola
11501
Long
Suite
Survivors
400
&
Friends
Road
746-3211
(212)
797-9000
American Gathering of Jewish

Holocaust Survivors
(212)
239-4230
Avenue
Israel of America
William Street
Agudath
84
Suite
201
Street
30th
York
American Jewish Committee

165 East 56th Street
New
NY
10017
York
American Jewish
Distribution
10th Floor
711
York
Yad Vashem,
York
37th
Inc.
(212)
687-6200
(212)
564-1865
(212)
529-9532
Street
Ann Frank Center
4th Floor
106
NY
New
10019
751-4000
American Society for

9th Floor
York
Joint
Comm.
(212)
Third Avenue
48 West
New
NY
10003
(518) 785-0035
(516)
Willis
New
NY
10022
NY
New
10018
743-7598
(716) 688-7020
Island Center for Holocaust
Study
122 West

Resource Center of
800 New Loudon
261
York
(718)
North Forest Road
Holocaust
New
NY
10001
Survivors
Buffalo, Inc.
NY
Latham
12110
York
TELEPHONE
Organization
2615 Brown Street
2640
New
NY
10038
AND ORGANIZATIONS
CENTERS
RESOURCE
E.
19th
Street
Pedagogic Resource Center

426 West 58th Street
88
BJE
(212)
245-8200
HOLOCAUST
STATE/ CITY/ ZIP
New
NY
10010
York
RESOURCE
INSTITUTION
Labor
3rd
York
TELEPHONE
Archives of the Jewish
Bund
25
NY
New
11377
AND ORGANIZATIONS
CENTERS
Comm.
(212)
Floor
473-5101
East 21st Street
Conference on Jewish Material

Claims
(212) 696-4944
Room 1355
East 26th Street
15
New
NY
10036
York
Csengeri
Studies
Institute for
(212)
642-2183
(212)
684-7480
(212)
674-7200
(212)
463-7988
(212)
594-8765
(212)
691-7316
(212)
490-2525
National Educational Resource

Center- JESNA
(212)
529-2000
Graduate Center

Room 1450
33 West 42nd
New
NY
10016
York
New
NY
10003
York
NY
New
10011
York
New
NY
10118
York
E.
216 West
3508
Street
Avenue
Institute for
History
Suite
Research in
923
Broadway
823
York
Publications
18th
Fifth
10th
NY
New
10003
Emanu-El
Street
Holocaust Survivors Memorial

Foundation
Suite
York
14th
Holocaust
1133
New
NY
10017
Project -
Holocaust
344
York
Street
Federation of Former Jewish

Underground Fighters
12 East 31st Street
350
NY
New
10010
Holocaust
ADL
Floor
United Nations
730 Broadway
89
Studies
Plaza
HOLOCAUST
STATE/ CITY/ ZIP
INSTITUTION
TELEPHONE
New
NY
10010
York
Jewish Labor Committee

25 East 21st Street
NY
New
10016
York
Jewish Nazi Victims of America
New
NY
10027
York
NY
New
10021
York
NY
New
10018
York
(212) 362-5262
Jewish Theological Seminary -
Library
Broadway
East
129
York
Institute
Leo Baeck
73
9th Floor
37th
Resistance
&
Suite
Street
Jews Inc
(212) 206-0006
1100
Fifth
Avenue
NY
New
10001
York
Zachor Division of CLAL

4th Floor
421 Seventh Avenue
New
NY
10016
York
National Jewish Community

Relations
44 3
York
New
Park Avenue South
York Holocaust
Suite
York
York
(212)
684-6950
717
(212)
687-5020
(212)
930-0603
Madison Avenue
York Public Library

(Jewish Div . )
Central Research Library
New
Fifth
NY
New
10018
(212) 714-9500
Memorial
Comm.
342
NY
New
10018
(212) 564-1865
Nat'l Conference of Christians

71
New
NY
10173
(212) 678-8982
(212) 744-6400
Street
and
Martyrdom
48 West
NY
New
10003
(212) 477-0707
Room 704
373 Fifth Avenue
3080

AND ORGANIZATIONS
CENTERS
RESOURCE
Avenue and 42nd
Research Foundation
Immig.
16th Floor
570
Seventh Avenue
90
Street
for Jewish
(212) 921-3871
HOLOCAUST
STATE/ CITY/ ZIP
RESOURCE
AND ORGANIZATIONS
CENTERS
INSTITUTION
TELEPHONE
to Scandinavia
New
NY
10151
York
NY
New
10001
York
Warsaw Ghetto
122 West 30th
NY
New
10021
York
World Federation of Bergen

Belsen Associations
Thanks
Fifth
745
Lenox
Avenue
Hill
Resistance
Street
(212)
486- 8600
(212)
564- 1065
(212)
752- 3387
(212)
752- 0600
(212)
535- 6700
(212)
960- 5265
(716)
461- 0290
(516)
883- 3850
(914)
356- 2711
Station
P.O. Box 232
NY
New
10022
York
World Zionist Organization

515 Park Avenue
NY
New
10028
York
YIVO
Institute for Jewish
1048
Fifth
NY
New
10033
York

Point
Studies
Valley
Soundview
Rockland Center for Holocaust
Studies
South Madison Avenue
American Jewish Archives
(513)
221- 1875
Kent
Kent State University
(216)
672- 2389
44242
OH
Sylvania
43560
3101
314
Portland
97201
Clifton
Avenue
Satterfield Hall
Holocaust Resource Center-Toledo

P.O. Box 587
(419) 885- 2685
6505
OR
Lane
Cincinnati
45215
OH
Street
Jerome Riker International

Study
17
OH
185th

441 East Avenue
30
NY Spring
10977
Avenue
Yeshiva University: Holocaust

500 West
NY
Rochester
14067
NY
Sands
11050
Research
Sylvania Avenue
Oregon Holocaust
2900
SW
Resource Center
Peaceful Lane
91
(503)
246- 8831
HOLOCAUST
RESOURCE
STATE/ CITY/ ZIP
INSTITUTION
TELEPHONE
PA
Allentown
18104
Allentown Jewish Archives

7 02
N. 22nd Streeet
(215) 821-9690
PA Philadelphia
19106
Anne Frank
PA
Philadelphia
19141
PA
Philadelphia
19141
Institute of
Philadelphia
Lafayette Building
Suite 608
5th & Chestnut Street
Gratz College
10th & Tabor Road
Holocaust Awareness
Gratz College
Room 217
Street
10th
PA
Philadelphia
19107
PA
Pittsburgh
15213
PA West
Chester
Museum
Floor, Suite
on the
300
Memorial Committee
Holocaust
Center of Greater
Pittsburgh
242 McKee Place
National Association
(215)
722-7242
(215) 922-7222
11713
Jollyville
Road
World Romani Union

Post Office Box 856
(412) 682-7124
for
Jewish Community Council of

Austin
Dallas
329-3363
for the
TX
Austin
78759
75230
(215)
Six Million
(215) 922-7222
Jewish Community Relations Council
125 S. Ninth Street, #300
19383
TX
625-0412
South 9th Street
Holocaust
West Chester University
TX
Buda
78610
(215)
Tabor Road
Holocaust
3rd
PA Philadelphia
19107
&
Interfaith Council
125

AND ORGANIZATIONS
CENTERS
(215)
696-3609
(512)
472-6248
(512)
926-5201
Association of Holocaust
Organizations
(214) 750-4654
c/o Dallas Memorial Center for
Holocaust Studies
7
900
Northaven Road
92
HOLOCAUST
7900 Northaven Road

RESOURCE CENTERS AND ORGANIZATIONS
STATE/ CITY/ ZIP
INSTITUTION
TELEPHONE
TX
Dallas
75230
Dallas Memorial Center

for Holocaust Studies
(214)
750-4654
TX
El
79912
El Paso Holocaust Memorial

(915)
584-4437
Paso
Center
Sierra Valle
6123
TX San
78216
Antonio
Jewish Federation of San Antonio
(512)
341-8234
(206)
543-1879
(608)
262-0629
Montreal Holocaust Memorial

Centre
(514)
5151 Cote St. Catherine Road
735-2386
CRC
Ahem
8434
WA
Seattle
98195
Lane
University of Washington
Libraries
FM-25
WI
Madison
53706
Jewish Archives
State Street
Wisconsin
816
CANADA
Montreal, Quebec
H3W
1M6

Toronto, Ontario
M2R 3V2
Canadian Foundation
Culture
4600 Bathurst Street
93
for Jewish
(416)
635-2883
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Allen, William Sheridan.
Seizure of Power: The

1922-1945. New York: Franklin
The Nazi
Experience of a Single German

Watts, 1965, 1984.
Town
Gutman, Yisrael; Margaliot, Abraham, editors.

on the Holocaust:
Selected Sources on the Destruction
of the Jews of Germany and Austria, Poland, and the Soviet Union.
Jerusalem: Yad Vashem in cooperation with the Anti-Defamation
League and Ktav Publishing House, 1981.
Arad,
Yitzhak;
Documents
Bauer,
Watts,
Yehuda.
1982.
Dawidowicz,
New
York:
Diamond,
History of the Holocaust.
Lucy S.
Bantam,
Sander A.
New York:
Science, Vol. XIV,
America.
Eisenberg, Azriel.
Press, 1981.
The War
1976.
The
The
1969.
New
Franklin
York:
Against the Jews, 1933-1945.
"Kristallnacht " and the Reaction in

Y.I.V.O. Annual of Jewish Social
Witness
to the Holocaust.
New
York:
Pilgrim
Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt

Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1945. New Brunswick,
New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1970.

Foreign Relations
Volume
Africa.
II:
of the United States:
British
Commonwealth,
Washington D.C.:
Government
The
Atlas of the Holocaust.
Gilbert, Martin.
The
Company,
Holocaust:
Meier,
The Destruction
1985.
Kochan, Lionel.
Deutsch, 1957.
Levin, Nora.
1933-1945
Pogrom,
10
York:
1955.
MacMillan
History of the Jews of Europe

Holt, Rinehart &
York:
of the European
November 1938.
Jews
London:
New
York:
Andre
Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry,

York: Thomas Y. Crowe 11 Company, 1968.
The
New
East and
The Holocaust and Its

Chalm.
Zalman Shazar Center, 1984.
Yisrael and Schatzker,

Significance . Jerusalem: The
&
New
Gutman,
Holmes
New
1982.
During the Second World War.

Winston, 1986.
Hilberg, Raul.
Near
Printing Office,
Gilbert, Martin.
Publishing
Diplomatic Papers, 1938.
Europe,
94
The Catholic Church

Lewy, Guenther.
Book Company, 1964.
McGraw
and Nazi Germany.
Hill
Lipstadt, Deborah.
Beyond
1986.
Press/MacMillan,
Belief
New
York:
New
York:
Free
Lookstein, Haskel . Were We Our Brother's Keepers.

The Public
New York:
of American Jews to the Holocaust, 1933-1945.
Vintage Books, 1985.
Response
Marrus, Michael R.
"The Strange Story of Herschel
Winter, 1988, pages 69-79.
The American Scholar.
McKale, Donald M.
The Swastika Outside Germany.
Kent State University Press, 1977.
Meed, Vladka .
Warsaw Ghetto.
Grynszpan."
Kent,
Ohio:
Both Sides of the Wall:

Memoirs from the
York: Holocaust Library, 1979.
On
New
Meltzer, Milton.
New York: Harper
Never
&
Row,
to Forget:
The Jews
1976.
of the Holocaust.
Mendelsohn, John, editor.

The Holocaust:
Selected Documents in
Eighteen Volumes . Volume 3, The Crystal Night Pogrom. New York:
Garland Publishing, Inc., 1982.
New

18,
York Times,
21
and 22,
issues of November 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17,
1938.
Rosenman, Samuel I. (compiler).

The Public Papers and Addresses
of Franklin Delano Roosevelt with a Special Introduction and
Explanatory Notes by President Roosevelt. 1938 Volume:
The
Continuing Struggle for Liberalism.
"The Five Hundredth Press
Conference (Excerpts), November 15, 1938." New York: MacMillian
Company,
1941.
Ross, Robert
So
W.
It
Was
True:
Protestant Press
Minneapolis: University of
The American
Persecution of the Jews

Minnesota Press, 1980.
and the Nazi
Schoenberner , Gerhard.
The Yellow Star:
The Persecution of the
Jews in Europe, 1933-1945.
New York: Bantam, 1973.
Rita
Thalmann,
New
Crystal Night.
and Feinermann, Emmanuel.
1974;
Holocaust Library,
McCann & Geoghegan,
York: Coward,
1980.
Wyman,
Paper Walls:
America and the Refugee
New York: Pantheon Books, 1985.
David.
1938-1941
95
Crisis,
Selected List of Films on the Holocaust

(The distributor is indicated after film
see key for distributors following this
title
list.)
by
abbreviations;
Ambulance (HEF)
9 minutes/B&W
16MM
is
This
trigger film that gives perceptive viewers
microcosm of the Holocaust.

Courage to Care,
The
minutes/color
Video; 16MM
30
in
(ADL)
for
an Academy Award by the Motion Picture

Sciences as the Best Documentary Short this is a film about the few but significant individuals who
knowingly risked their lives during the Holocaust to aid
Nominated
Jews
1986
of Arts
Academy
and
David (DAV)
125 minutes;
German
35MM
family experiences Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken

its after effects which completely transforms their
Glass, and
lives .

Genocide
52
(AOL)
minutes/color
16MM
A documentary film produced by Thames Television as part of

"The World at War" series.
tells the inhuman story of
Hitler's "Final Solution" set within a historic frame.
It
Holocaust, The (AJS)

28 minutes/color
16MM
overview, produced by Yad Vashem, using Nazi film

stills, which places the events of the Holocaust
in historical perspective.
Documentary
footage and
I Never Saw Another

30 minutes/B&W
Butterfly
(EL)
16MM
For twenty years Any a, one of the 200 children who survived
the Terezin concentration camp returns to Terezin and relives
those years.
Includes poetry and drawings of children at the
camp gathered in the book I Never Saw Another Butterfly.
96
Our Time in the Garden

15 minutes/B&W
(NCJ)
16MM
is the true story of a young Jewish woman growing

Berlin at the time of Hitler's rise to power.
This
Riga: A Tale of
20 minutes/color
Ghettos
Two
up
in
(HMM)
Video
film is about life and death in the ghettos of Riga,

Latvia. It is an artistic re-creation of the past, comprised
of survivor testimony, archival photographs and portraits.
The
Eli
Wallach narrates the film and Helen Hayes gives voice to

the testimony of the survivors.
Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, The (ADL)

Video; 16MM
A
Four-Part Film Series on Nazi Germany
Part I
Rise of Hitler
minutes/B&W
28
film chronicles how Adolf Hitler and his political

cohorts in the Nazi party manipulated events during their
country's crises to achieve power.
The
Part
II

Nazi Germany:
28
minutes/B&W
Years of Triumph
Germany between
Part
1933
III
Goetterdaemmerung
28 minutes/B&W
In the four years
and 1939.
Collapse of the Third Reich

between
1941
and 1945.
Part IV
Nuremberg Trial
31 minutes/B&W
The indictment of twenty- four Nazi leaders in Nuremberg,

Germany, in October 1945, opened an unprecedented chapter
international law.
97
in
Thunder in Munich (PP)

28 minutes/B&W
16MM
true story of Rupert. Meier, a German Jesuit, who returned

I a combat hero and who defies the Nazis.
The
from World War
To Bear Witness
minutes/color
Video; 16MM
40
(PF)
film is a powerful documentary about the liberation of

the Nazi concentration camps by the Allied Armies in 1945.
Among the well-known people who speak in the film are
President Ronald Reagan, former President Jimmy Carter, and
Elie Wiesel.
The
Trial at
Nuremberg
23 minutes/B&W
Video;
CBS
is
(HRW)
16MM
News
Documentary
the record of the
Warsaw Ghetto:
19 minutes/B&W
narrated by Walter Cronkite.

This film
trial, a factual presentation.
Holocaust
and
Resistance
JLC )
Filmstrip
for the Warsaw Ghetto underground

movement and member of the Z . O . B . , describes Warsaw before the
German occupation and during the Nazi regime, Jewish cultural
resistance, and preparations for the armed Warsaw Ghetting

Vladka Meed, a courier
Uprising.
Witness
Video;
A
to the Holocaust (CG)
16MM
series of seven short films based
different topics of the Holocaust.
on
survivor testimony
on
Rise of the Nazis

20
minutes/B&W
how a violent, extra-legal group of

outsiders and fringe elements rose to power in a democracy,
and established political and economic institutions of
legitimized terror and mass murder.
This episode shows
98
Ghetto
Life
20 minutes/B&W
This episode describes ghetto conditions, Jewish efforts to

continue living, and the role of the Judenrat, the Jewish
Council .
Deportations
20 minutes/B&W
collection and deportation of people from the ghettos and

countryside to the concentration camps, and the attitude to
bystanders are presented in this episode.
The
Resistance
20 minutes/B&W
This episode
Resistance against the Nazis took many forms.
explores both spiritual resistance, as well as armed
resistance.
The
20
Final Solution
minutes/B&W
This episode avoids pure atrocity footage, yet deals with

selection and death, as well as daily life, in the
'
concentration camps.

Freedom
20 minutes/B&W
This film explores the liberation, the movement of survivors

back to their homes in Europe, and their subsequent efforts
to begin new lives in Israel and America.
Reflections
20
minutes/B&W
In this important afterword to the series, survivors
reflect
on such questions as how the scope of Nazi atrocities grew

beyond 'the Jewish question' to include non-Jews, and what
universal lessons can be learned from the Holocaust.
For purchase or rental information please refer to the codes and

corresponding distributors on next page:
Please note that many
are available on film or video depending on whether it is rented
or purchased.
Please contact distributor for specifics.
99
Key
ADL
for Distributors
Anti-Defamation League
of B'nai B'rith
823
New
United Nations Plaza

York, New York 10017
(212) 490-2525
AJS
Alden-JSC
Box 449
Clarksburg,
Jersey
New
(201) 462-3522
CG
Cinema Guild
1697 Broadway,
New
York,
New
(212) 246-5522
DAV
Filmverlag der Autoren

Tengstrasse 37, 8000
Fifth
York,

New
York
10010
Holocaust Educational Films

1610
Avenue
Brooklyn,
"J"
New
338-8494
(718)
York
11230
U.S. Holocaust Memorial

2000
Suite
Street,
N.W.
Museum
717
Washington, D.C.
(202) 822-6464
HRW
Fed. Rep.
Avenue
533-7800
(212)
HMM
Ger.
Eternal Light Film Library

United Synagogue of America
155
New
HEF
802
10019
David
Munchen 40,
EL
Suite
York
08510
20036
Holt, Rinehart
and Winston
Woodland Avenue
Austin, Texas 78741
Debbrah Willkox
ATTN:
440-5774
(512)
1627
JLC
Jewish Labor Committee

25 East 21st Street
New York, New York
10010
(212) 477-0707
100
NCJ
National Center for Jewish Film

Brandeis
Lown
University
Building
102
Walthem, Massachusetts
(617) 899-7044
PP
Paulist Productions
17575 Pacific Coast
02254
Highway
Post Office Box 1057

Pacific Palisades, California
(213) 454-0688

PF
Phoenix Films
468 Park Avenue, South
New York, New York
10016
(212) 684-5910
101
90272
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST
COUNCIL MEMBERS
MEMORIAL
Chair van
Harvey
Meyerhoff
M.
Vice Chairaan
J.
William
Lowenberg
Member 8
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable

Spielvogel
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
102
Jack Abramoff
Philip
Abrams
Albert Abramson
Matthew Brown
David T. Chase
George Deukmejian
Barbaralee
Bill
Diamonstein-
Duna
Dalck Feith
Abraham H. Foxman
Erna I. Gans
Alfred Gottschalk
Sylvia Hassenfeld
Milton Himmelfarb
J.
Robert
Horn
Herbert D. Katz
Marvin G. "Jerry" Kelfer
Bobbie Greene Kilberg
Julian E. Kulas
Ronald S. Lauder
Miles Lerman
Theodore Lerner
Harry H. Levitch
Franklin
Littell
Steven A. Ludsin
Ingeborg G. Mauksch
Benjamin Meed
Robert H. Mendelsohn
Ruth
Miller
Set Momjian
Isaac
Neuman
Murray Pantirer
John T. Pawlikowski
Bernard S. Raskas
Sheila Johnson Robbins
Edward H.
Richard
Edward
M.
M.
Rosen
Rosenbaum
Rosenfeld
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Congressional
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The
The

Ex
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Honorable
Officio
Department
Ms.
Rosensaft
L. Sachar
Julius Schatz
Richard Schifter
Hadassah
Abram
Sigmund Strochlitz
Kalman Sultanik
Arnold Thaler
Laurence A. Tisch
Glenn Watts
Sheila Rabb Weidenfeld
Elie Wiesel (Founding Chairman)
Siggi B. Wilzig
Eli
Zborowski
Members
Robert Garcia
S.
William Green
Kasten
Frank R. Lautenberg
Bob
William
Lehman
Frank H. Murkowski
Claiborne Pell
Stephen P. Solarz
Lowell P. Weicker
Sidney R. Yates
Members
of Education:
Shannon Sorzano
Department
of Interior;
Mr. William Penn Mott,

Department
Morris
I.
Jr.
of State;
Leibman,
103
Esquire

U.S. HOLOCAUST
2000 L Street. N.W., Suite 588
MEMORlAL
(202) 653-9220
COUNClL
Washington, D.C. 20036

Night of Pogroms

Caricato da

Informazioni sul documento

Copyright

Formati disponibili

Condividi questo documento

Condividi o incorpora il documento

Opzioni di condivisione

Hai trovato utile questo documento?

Questo contenuto è inappropriato?

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Night of Pogroms

Caricato da

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Generated on 2015-05-09 18:38 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.

"/ myself could scarcely believe that such things

of the United States

Generated on 2015-05-09 18:40 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015022195989

Council/ 2000 L Street. N.W., Suite 588. Washington.

In the compilation of a packet of this kind, many people

Generated on 2015-05-09 18:41 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015022195989

Our thanks to the authors and publishers who granted

Letter from Harvey

M. Meyerhoff, Chairman, U.S. Holocaust

- Eyewitness to "Kr istallnacht"

Architect for the United States Holocaust Memorial

to Use the Booklet

Nazi Paperwork on Re ichskr istallnacht

Generated on 2015-05-09 18:41 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015022195989

Suggested Program Ideas For Schools

Highlights of Events, March 13, 1938 through

Sources of Additional Information and/or Materials

Memorial Council Members

United States Holocaust Memorial Council

Generated on 2015-05-09 18:42 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015022195989

In a world proud of its

in the twentieth century and here in the United

Please join the members of the United States Holocaust

Chairman, U.S. Holocaust

James Inoo Freed

Early in the day of

November 9, my father received a warning

1938, I was 8 1/2 years old, living with my

my father and I boarded first one street car,

Generated on 2015-05-09 18:43 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015022195989

from Paris on a children's refugee train, traveled on to

We set about making our home in Chicago.

During the past two years, I have immersed myself in the

I have come to believe that memory must be

for the singularly unbelievable but horribly true story of the

Generated on 2015-05-09 18:44 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015022195989

to Use The Booklet

to offer this collection of materials on

This booklet is not intended for the Holocaust scholar or

and documents available on

Generated on 2015-05-09 18:44 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015022195989

A brief historical background to the event orients the user

activities. We have included study aids to help users

Finally, in order to stimulate

knowledge about "Kristallnacht,"

the pursuit of additional

There are many lessons to be derived from the study of

this dark period in twentieth-century history. We hope the

Background on the Night of Pogroms

silence not a sound to be heard in the town. The

With methodical precision during the night of Wednesday,

Generated on 2015-05-09 18:44 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015022195989

By Friday morning, November 11, nearly 100 Jews were dead,

public labeled this event "Kristallnacht

Within days of the event, Hermann Goering, Reich Minister of

York: The Pilgrim Press,

marks ($400 million) on the Jewish communities to

rights within the

Generated on 2015-05-09 18:45 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015022195989

These events were widely reported in the United States

boycott of Nazi Germany poured into Washington from trade unions,

of November 9-10 were

of the Nazis' "final solution of the Jewish question." Within