10 Points Summary
1) On
the night of November 9, 1938, violence against Jews broke out across the
Reich. The pogroms that occurred were carefully organized by German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels
and other Nazis.
2)The attack
was caused because Herschel Grynszpan, a 17 year old Jew living in
Paris,
shot and killed a member of the German Embassy because of the poor treatment
his family received from the Nazis.
3) In
two days, over 1,000 synagogues were burned, 7,000 Jewish businesses were
trashed and looted, dozens of Jewish people were killed, and Jewish cemeteries,
hospitals,
schools, and homes were looted.
4)Hundreds
of synagogues were systematically burned while local fire departments stood by
or simply prevented the fire from spreading to surrounding buildings.
5)After
this night 30,000 Jewish men were arrested for being Jewish and were sent to
concentration camps.
6)The
next day curfews were placed on Jews, which limited the hours of the day they
could leave their homes.
7)Businesses
owned by Jews were not allowed to reopen unless they were managed by non-Jews
8)After this event Jewish kids who were already barred
from entering museums, public playgrounds, and swimming pools, were now expelled from the public schools.
9)On November 12 Goering called a meeting in which
they decided that since Jews were to
blame for these events, they would be held legally and financially responsible
for the damages incurred by the pogrom.
10) Kristallnacht could be
considered the most significant event in the development of the holocaust.
Links
http://sorrel.humboldt.edu/~rescuers/book/Chlup/chluplinks/knacht.html
- stories of survivors
http://www.ushmm.org/kristallnacht/issues/kristall.htm
- information
Georgetown
Preparatory School
10900 Rockville
Pike
North Bethesda,
MD. 20852
301-493-5000