Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction (Making History)

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Kristallnacht marked a turning point in relations between Nazi Germany and the rest of the world. The brutality of the pogrom, and the Nazi government's deliberate policy of encouraging the violence once it had begun, laid bare the repressive nature and widespread anti-Semitism entrenched in Germany. World opinion thus turned sharply against the Nazi regime, with some politicians calling for war. On 6 December 1938, William Cooper, an Aboriginal Australian, led a delegation of the Australian Aboriginal League on a march through Melbourne to the German Consulate to deliver a petition which condemned the "cruel persecution of the Jewish people by the Nazi government of Germany". German officials refused to accept the tendered document. [76] 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. [43]

Deem, James M. Kristallnacht: the Nazi terror that began the Holocaust (2012) for secondary schools. online In view of this being a totalitarian state a surprising characteristic of the situation here is the intensity and scope among German citizens of condemnation of the recent happenings against Jews. [69] 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'. [44]

November 9–10

Kristallnacht owes its name to the shards of shattered glass that lined German streets in the wake of the pogrom—broken glass from the windows of synagogues, homes, and Jewish-owned businesses plundered and destroyed during the violence. Assassination of Ernst vom Rath a b Taylor, Alan (19 June 2011). "World War II: Before the War". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 7 January 2015.

a b Mommsen, Hans (12 December 1997). "Interview with Hans Mommsen" (PDF). Yad Vashem. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 July 2012 . Retrieved 6 February 2010.

JudenVermoegersabgabe" (The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies)". Archived from the original on 21 April 2006 . Retrieved 4 May 2006.