The Time of the Kristallnacht:

On November 9th and 10th of 1938, about 100 Jews were murdered. Tens of thousands of
Jews were sent and transported to concentration camps. Shops, businesses, and homes were
destroyed leaving many of the Jews without a roof over their heads and homeless. What could
lead to this terrible and horrific atrocity? This event was known as "Kristallnacht" or The Night
of the Broken Glass.
The Night of the Broken Glass was a violent anti-Jewish pogrom which was set by the
Nazis to attack the Jewish shops and destroy homes and other businesses. It all began with
the assassination of Ernst Vom Rath. Vom Rath was a German Diplomat and was assassinated in
Paris of 1938 by a Jewish teenager named, Herschel Grynszpan. A few days before his murder,
The Germans commanded that thousands of Jews under polish citizenship were to be expelled
and put in the refugee camp between Poland and Germany. Grynszpan found out that his parents
were among the thousands and decided to seek revenge on them. He went to the German
Embassy and shot the Official assigned to help him. The Official was Ernst Vom Rath. The
Nazis decided to act on this and generate an anti-Semitic attack on the Jews and arise violence to
the people. There was another reason as to why the Germans acted on this, they had lost
World War I which led to this event. A total of 267 synagogues were destroyed and burned.
7,500 Jewish-owned shops and businesses were robbed and broke into. Jewish children could not
go to school and many German Jews lost their citizenship. They also had to wear
yellow stars which signified their identity as Jews. Most of the destruction that occurred were in
Berlin and Vienna, which was home to the largest populations of the Jewish community. 30,000
Jewish Men were arrested during those two fearful nights and were taken from local prisons
to concentration camps in Buchenwald, Dachau, Sachsenhausen and etc. Hundreds died as a
result of being in the camps either by being tortured or brutally treated or by being directly sent
to death. While some were being gassed and burned, others were working and laboring to the
extent.
After the Kristallnacht, German leaders disapproved of the material losses that occurred
during the night and pointed out that if nothing was done to fix it then the German Insurance
Companies would have to take care of the damages and costs. But, they also decided to use this
to eliminate and expel all Jews. However, the German Government made an announcement that
since "The Jews" caused all this riot then why don't we make them pay for the damages that
they've done? This left the Jews responsible when they had no money and no valuables to pay
for the damages they had not done. After this, they took freedom away from the Jews so that way
Jewish children could not attend school, Jews could not take any means of public transportation,
and were restricted to go anywhere pertaining to the name "German". As a whole, Kristallnacht
and the Holocaust gave us a better understanding of how things were back then in Germany and
how they tormented and treated the Jews as inferiors by taking control of them and putting them
into fault.