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Who: Adolf Hitler was the leader of the German Nazis, and an enemy of the Jewish religion. Joseph Goebbels was Hitler’s chief propaganda officer. He was in charge of the creation and distribution of propaganda. Hershel Grynszpan, the son of a Jewish shopkeeper, watched as Nazis took his father’s shop. Grynszpan later assassinated a German officer, the catalyst for the Holocaust.
When: The beginning of Kristallnacht was on November 7, 1938; where Hershel Grynszpan shot and killed Third Secretary Ernst vom Roth. The actual Kristallnacht, however, occurred two nights later on the 9th and 10th. This is when Nazis terrorized the surprised Jews. Three days later on November 12, Goering, a German officer, called a meeting of the top Nazi leadership to assess the damage done during the night and place responsibility for it. The meeting was targeted towards placing the Jews responsible for Kristallnacht, and using the events prior to it as a reason that the Jews should be removed from the German economy.
What: On orders from Goebbels, approved by Hitler, German storm troopers and youth gangs burned and destroyed 101 synagogues and 7,500 Jewish businesses. Over 26,000 Jews were arrested but an unlucky 91 gave their lives. After Kristallnacht 100,000 Jews fled from Germany. Kristallnacht in German means the “Night of Broken Glass” because of the many shop windows that were shattered.
Why: Hershel Grynszpan was upset that his family had no money. His father mailed him a postcard saying that they were now penniless. Grynszpan went to the German embassy in Paris, and asked to see the ambassador’s secretary. Instead he saw Ernst vom Roth, Third Secretary of Embassy. Five gunshots were heard and vom Roth staggered out of the room bleeding. Ernst vom Roth died two days later. The assassination provided Goebbels with an excuse to start an operation against German Jews, which he had wanted to start for a long time. The operation was later named Kristallnacht. During the night of November 9th and 10th, Nazis went through Jewish neighborhoods breaking windows and burning homes and businesses. Jews were arrested and sent to camps; dozens of others were killed.
