86 years have passed since the prelude to the Holocaust, a coordinated anti-Jewish pogrom that went down in history as Kristallnacht.
The event earned its name—Kristallnacht or “Night of Broken Glass”—from the shards of glass from shattered Jewish shop windows that littered the streets of German and Austrian cities, as well as those of territories annexed from Czechoslovakia after the Munich Agreement, such as the Sudetenland, during the night of November 9–10, 1938.
During this pogrom, approximately 7,500 Jewish shops and businesses were looted, and their interiors destroyed. Over 100 synagogues were set ablaze, including around 50 in the Czech borderlands, in cities like Liberec, Jablonec, Opava, Cheb, Františkovy Lázně, Mariánské Lázně, and Karlovy Vary. Nearly 100 Jews were killed directly during the pogrom, while about 30,000—mostly wealthy individuals—were deported to concentration camps such as Dachau, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen. Many were released only after agreeing to emigrate and forfeiting their property to the Reich.
The events of November 9–10, 1938, symbolized the escalation of the Nazi anti-Jewish policy. As would soon become evident, they were also a prelude to far worse events: mass persecution and genocide that claimed the lives of millions.
The Organized Pogrom
Despite later claims by Nazi leaders that the pogrom was unplanned and that Jews had incited the “righteous anger” of the people, the truth was the opposite. The violence was meticulously organized and coordinated, even as many Germans openly criticized it as brutal and inhumane. However, it must also be acknowledged that, despite their personal objections, many silently witnessed the barbarism.
The pretext for the violence was the assassination attempt on Ernst vom Rath, a secretary at the German embassy in Paris, by Herschel Grünspan, a 17-year-old Jewish youth, on November 7, 1938. German newspapers flooded their front pages with hateful anti-Jewish propaganda. Vom Rath succumbed to his injuries on November 9, 1938.
That evening, Joseph Goebbels delivered a fiery speech announcing vom Rath’s death and calling for vengeance. Nazi officials, especially SA leaders, interpreted this as a call to initiate widespread pogroms. Within hours, SA troops and other Nazi groups began inciting riots, targeting Jewish businesses, properties, and synagogues throughout Germany.
The (Un)Foreseen Prelude to the Holocaust
In retrospect, it is difficult to ignore the fact that Kristallnacht marked a turning point in Nazi antisemitism—a point of no return. However, this interpretation benefits from the clarity of hindsight. At the time, few could comprehend the full significance of the events or foresee the atrocities that lay ahead.
Even among the Jewish community, understanding was limited. Social psychologist Harald Welzer noted in his book Soldaten: On Fighting, Killing, and Dying that it was nearly impossible for anyone to imagine “the unimaginable”—a complete and catastrophic departure from previous experiences. Many German Jews, even amidst escalating persecution, perceived the Nazi regime as a temporary phenomenon they simply had to endure. Their historical frame of reference, marked by centuries of antisemitism, persecution, and dispossession, blinded them to the unprecedented and lethal nature of the unfolding events.
Lessons from Kristallnacht
While we might hope that such atrocities could never happen again, history warns us otherwise. The mechanisms of hatred remain alarmingly similar. Nazi propaganda labeled Jews as “vermin,” “infection,” “filth,” and “cancer,” dehumanizing them and justifying their mistreatment. Once a group is stripped of its humanity, it becomes easier to commit atrocities against them.
The rhetoric used during Kristallnacht is echoed in modern times. Disparaging labels and propaganda have been employed against various groups, from Muslims to refugees. The same word—unanpassungsfähig (“unassimilable”)—used by Nazis to describe “undesirable” populations targeted for extermination is echoed today in phrases like “unadaptable” minorities.
How Could This Happen?
While most people inherently believe hatred and murder are wrong, the situation changes when propaganda defines the “enemy” as an embodiment of evil. Whether the target is Jews, kulaks, Muslims, or refugees, propaganda convinces people that such groups pose a threat requiring elimination at any cost.
This universal mechanism of hate is why Kristallnacht should serve as a sobering reminder. The lessons of history demand vigilance to ensure that the seeds of such violence are never sown again.
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