Editing Kristallnacht (section)

==Pogrom==

===Death of Ernst vom Rath===

Ernst vom Rath died of his wounds on 9 November 1938. Word of his death reached Hitler that evening while he was with several key members of the Nazi party at a dinner commemorating the 1923 [[Beer Hall Putsch]]. After intense discussions, Hitler left the assembly abruptly without giving his usual address. Propaganda Minister [[Joseph Goebbels]] delivered the speech, in his place, and said that "the Führer has decided that... demonstrations should not be prepared or organized by the party, but insofar as they erupt spontaneously, they are not to be hampered."<ref>Friedländer, op.cit., p. 113.</ref> The chief party judge [[Walter Buch]] later stated that the message was clear; with these words, Goebbels had commanded the party leaders to organize a pogrom.<ref>Walter Buch to Goring, 13.2.1939, Michaelis and Schraepler, Ursachen, Vol.12, p. 582 as cited in Friedländer, p. 271.</ref>

Some leading party officials disagreed with Goebbels' actions, fearing the diplomatic crisis it would provoke. [[Heinrich Himmler]] wrote, "I suppose that it is Goebbels's megalomania{{nbsp}}... and stupidity which is responsible for starting this operation now, in a particularly difficult diplomatic situation."<ref>Graml, Anti-Semitism, p. 13 cited in Friedländer, op.cit., p 272</ref> The Israeli historian [[Saul Friedländer]] believes that Goebbels had personal reasons for wanting to bring about ''Kristallnacht''. Goebbels had recently suffered humiliation for the ineffectiveness of his propaganda campaign during the [[Sudetenland Crisis|Sudeten crisis]], and was in some disgrace over an affair with a [[Czechs|Czech]] actress, [[Lída Baarová]]. Goebbels needed a chance to improve his standing in the eyes of Hitler. At 1:20&nbsp;a.m. on 10 November 1938, [[Reinhard Heydrich]] sent an urgent secret telegram to the ''[[Sicherheitspolizei]]'' (Security Police; SiPo) and the ''[[Sturmabteilung]]'' (SA), containing instructions regarding the riots. This included guidelines for the protection of foreigners and non-Jewish businesses and property. Police were instructed not to interfere with the riots unless the guidelines were violated. Police were also instructed to seize Jewish archives from synagogues and community offices, and to arrest and detain "healthy male Jews, who are not too old", for eventual transfer to (labor) concentration camps.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.asp?c=gvKVLcMVIuG&b=394829 |title=Heydrich's secret instructions regarding the riots in November 1938 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170807232350/http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.asp?c=gvKVLcMVIuG&b=394829 |archive-date=7 August 2017 |work=[[Simon Wiesenthal Center]] }}</ref> [[Heinrich Müller (Gestapo)|Heinrich Müller]], in a message to SA and SS commanders, stated the "most extreme measures" were to be taken against Jewish people.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schnabel |first1=Reimund |title=Macht ohne Moral |date=1957 |publisher=Roederberg Publishing |location=Frankfurt |page=78}}</ref>

===Riots and  Kristallnacht===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1970-083-42, Magdeburg, zerstörtes jüdisches Geschäft.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.2|''Kristallnacht'', shop damage in [[Magdeburg]]]]

Beginning on November 9, the SA and Hitler Youth shattered the windows of about 7,500 Jewish stores and businesses, hence the name ''Kristallnacht'' (Crystal Night), and looted their goods.<ref>GermanNotes, {{cite web |url=http://www.germannotes.com/hist_ww2_kristallnacht.shtml |title=Kristallnacht - Night of Broken Glass |access-date=2009-03-06 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20050419213618/http://www.germannotes.com/hist_ww2_kristallnacht.shtml |archive-date=19 April 2005 |df=dmy-all }}, retrieved 26 November 2007</ref><ref name=ushmm>{{Cite web |url=https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005201 |title=Kristallnacht |publisher=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] |language=en|access-date=2018-05-19|archive-date=18 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180518065409/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005201|url-status=live}}</ref>  Jewish homes were ransacked all throughout Germany. Although violence against Jews had not been explicitly condoned by the authorities, there were cases of Jews being beaten or assaulted. Following the violence, police departments recorded a large number of suicides and rapes.<ref name=ushmm/>

The rioters destroyed many hundreds of synagogues throughout Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland, with estimates of over one thousand.<ref name="Evans"/> Over 1,400 synagogues and prayer rooms,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.zukunft-braucht-erinnerung.de/die-kristallnacht-luege/|title=Die "Kristallnacht"-Lüge - Die Ereignisse vom 9./10. November 1938 &#124; ZbE|website=www.zukunft-braucht-erinnerung.de|date=26 October 2004|access-date=19 March 2019|archive-date=9 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181109234714/https://www.zukunft-braucht-erinnerung.de/die-kristallnacht-luege/|url-status=live}}</ref> many Jewish cemeteries, more than 7,000 Jewish shops, and 29 department stores were damaged, and in many cases destroyed. [[Mass arrests after Kristallnacht|More than 30,000 Jewish men were arrested]] and imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps, primarily [[Dachau concentration camp|Dachau]], [[Buchenwald concentration camp|Buchenwald]], and [[Sachsenhausen concentration camp|Sachsenhausen]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/photos/57659 |url-status=live |title=The deportation of Regensburg Jews to Dachau concentration camp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181006155005/http://www.yadvashem.org/exhibitions/kristallnacht/kristallnacht_photo2.html |archive-date=6 October 2018 |work=[[Yad Vashem]] Photo Archives 57659 }}</ref> 

The synagogues, some centuries old, were also victims of considerable violence and vandalism, with the tactics the Stormtroopers practiced on these and other sacred sites described as "approaching the ghoulish" by the United States Consul in Leipzig. Tombstones were uprooted and graves violated. Fires were lit, and prayer books, scrolls, artwork and philosophy texts were thrown upon them, and precious buildings were either burned or smashed until unrecognizable. Eric Lucas recalls the destruction of the synagogue that a tiny Jewish community had constructed in a small village only twelve years earlier:

{{quote|It did not take long before the first heavy grey stones came tumbling down, and the children of the village amused themselves as they flung stones into the many colored windows. When the first rays of a cold and pale November sun penetrated the heavy dark clouds, the little synagogue was but a heap of stone, broken glass and smashed-up woodwork.<ref>Lucas, Eric. "The sovereigns", Kibbutz Kfar Blum (Palestine), 1945, p. 171 cited in Gilbert, op.cit., p 67.</ref>}}

The ''Daily Telegraph'' correspondent, [[Hugh Greene]], wrote of events in Berlin:

{{quote|Mob law ruled in Berlin throughout the afternoon and evening and hordes of hooligans indulged in an orgy of destruction. I have seen several anti-Jewish outbreaks in Germany during the last five years, but never anything as nauseating as this. Racial hatred and hysteria seemed to have taken complete hold of otherwise decent people. I saw fashionably dressed women clapping their hands and screaming with glee, while respectable middle-class mothers held up their babies to see the 'fun'.<ref>Carleton Greene, Hugh. ''Daily Telegraph'', 11 November 1938 cited in [http://mars.vnet.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/berlin/lectures/17TheRoadtoWar.html "The Road to World War II"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930231711/http://mars.vnet.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/berlin/lectures/17TheRoadtoWar.html |date=30 September 2007 }}, Western New England College.</ref>}}

Many Berliners were, however, deeply ashamed of the pogrom, and some took great personal risks to offer help to their beleaguered Jewish neighbors. The son of a US consular official heard the janitor of his block cry: "They must have emptied the insane asylums and penitentiaries to find people who'd do things like that!"<ref>[http://mars.vnet.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/berlin/lectures/17TheRoadtoWar.html "The Road to World War II"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930231711/http://mars.vnet.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/berlin/lectures/17TheRoadtoWar.html|date=30 September 2007}}, Western New England College.[https://web.archive.org/web/20070930231711/http://mars.vnet.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/berlin/lectures/17TheRoadtoWar.html]</ref>

[[KOLD-TV|KOLD]] briefly reported on a 2008 remembrance meeting at a local Jewish congregation. According to eyewitness Esther Harris: "They ripped up the belongings, the books, knocked over furniture, shouted obscenities".<ref name="kold">{{cite web|url=http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=8269951&nav=14RT|title=Kristallnacht Remembered|publisher=www.kold.com|access-date=2008-05-17|archive-date=10 July 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090710200115/http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=8269951&nav=14RT|url-status=dead}}</ref> Historian [[Gerhard Weinberg]] is quoted as saying:

<blockquote>Houses of worship burned down, vandalized, in every community in the country where people either participate or watch.<ref name="kold"/></blockquote>