Kristallnacht and the preludes to the Shoah

On the night of November 9–10, 1938, pogroms organized by the Nazi regime struck the Jews of Germany and Austria, in what was called Kristallnacht. Synagogues were set ablaze, thousands of Jewish businesses and homes were ransacked, and numerous people were killed or injured. Approximately thirty thousand Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Falsely presented as a spontaneous reaction, the event was in reality coordinated by the authorities, who subsequently imposed a heavy collective fine on the Jews. Kristallnacht marked a turning point in the persecution of the Jews of the Reich, accelerating their economic and social exclusion and foreshadowing the radicalization that would lead to the Shoah.

Sources & resources

• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan
• Jewish Virtual Library ↗