Kristallnacht: The Night of the Broken Glass

Learning Intentions and Success Criteria

  • Analyze primary and secondary sources to understand the impact of Kristallnacht on Jewish communities and Nazi policies.
  • Reflect on the implications of Kristallnacht in shaping attitudes towards minority groups and the importance of promoting tolerance and respect for human rights.
  • Explain the events leading up to Kristallnacht and its significance in the context of the Holocaust.

Do Now

  • What is genocide?
  • How do neighbors end up turning against neighbors?

Key Terminology

  • Pogrom: An organized massacre of helpless people, specifically a massacre of Jews.
  • Nazi:
  • Kristallnacht:
  • Holocaust:
  • Genocide:
  • Collective Punishment:

Hershel Grynszpan

  • Wrote, "I must protest so the whole world hears my protest," to his parents.
  • On November 7, 1938, he shot a German diplomat in Paris.
  • Grynszpan's motivations:
    • "Being a Jew is not a crime. I am not a dog. I have a right to live and the Jewish people have a right to exist on earth."
    • "Wherever I have been I have been chased like an animal."

Context of Kristallnacht

  • The shooting of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan served as the pretext for the pogroms.
  • News of Rath’s death on November 9 reached Adolf Hitler in Munich, where he was celebrating the anniversary of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch.
  • Joseph Goebbels, after conferring with Hitler, organized a gathering of old storm troopers, urging violent reprisals staged to appear as “spontaneous demonstrations.”
  • Telephone orders from Munich triggered pogroms throughout Germany, which then included Austria.

Josef Goebbels

  • On November 8, 1938, Goebbels stated, "We shed not a tear for them [the Jews.]"
  • He commented on the destruction of synagogues, saying, "They stood in the way long enough. We can use the space made free more usefully than as Jewish fortresses."

Kristallnacht Pogroms

  • Described as "A watershed moment in the Nazi plan to destroy the Jews.”
  • Schoolchildren and others were brought to watch the burning of synagogue furnishings.

Night of Broken Glass

  • Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) occurred on November 9–10, 1938.

Readings

  • Choose one of the following perspectives to read through and answer the questions:
    • The Night of the Pogrom
    • Opportunism during Kristallnacht
    • Thoroughly Reprehensible Behavior
    • A Visitor's Perspective on Kristallnacht
    • World Responses to Kristallnacht
  • Reading and analyzing a testimony about Kristallnacht in groups and reporting on what they learned to the rest of the class.

Aftermath

  • "A watershed moment in the Nazi plan to destroy the Jews."
  • Numbers between 11 and 230 are referenced

Questions

  1. What role did Kristallnacht play in the larger Holocaust?
  2. Describe what happened at Kristallnacht? Have other “Kristallnachts” taken place since 1938? Are there any indications that similar events are happening now? Explain your answers.
  3. What can we do to prevent another “Kristallnacht”? What can we do as individuals? What can we do as a country?

Comparative Analysis

  • Research and compare Kristallnacht to other instances of state-sponsored violence, persecution, or genocide throughout history, particularly in relation to the destruction of cultural sites.

Exit Ticket

  • What can we learn by thinking about the choices people make in times of fear and crisis?