Döscher, Hans-Jürgen (1988). Reichskristallnacht: Die Novemberpogrome 1938 (in German). Ullstein. ISBN 978-3-550-07495-0. Pehle, Walter H. (1988). Der Judenpogrom 1938: Von der "Reichskristallnacht" zum Völkermord (in German). Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag. ISBN 3-596-24386-6. Kristallnacht, literally, "Night of Crystal," is often referred to as the "Night of Broken Glass." The name refers to the wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms which took place on November 9 and 10, 1938. This wave of violence took place throughout Germany, annexed Austria, and in areas of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia recently occupied by German troops. Lucas, Eric. "The sovereigns", Kibbutz Kfar Blum (Palestine), 1945, p. 171 cited in Gilbert, op.cit., p 67.

A great collection of primary sources woven together to illustrate the terror the Nazis unleashed on Jews prior to the outbreak of World War II. It shatters the notion that the scope of atrocities the Nazis committed before the war were unknown to the Allies and that there was no indicator of the true horror to come. It manages to accomplish this task while remaining immersed in a rich collection of first-hand accounts from individuals throughout Europe who suffered during Kristallnacht, demonstrating the influence the Nazis and their European allies had throughout the "annexed" German territories. The world’s newspapers reported the unfolding events in mounting horror as a civilised society descended into barbarism and Germany fell into chaos. One newspaper spoke of ‘the racial hatred and hysteria that seemed to have taken complete control of otherwise decent people.’ JudenVermoegersabgabe" (The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies)". Archived from the original on 21 April 2006 . Retrieved 4 May 2006. We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies and the Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia.The Nazi regime expanded and radicalized measures aimed at removing Jews entirely from German economic and social life in the forthcoming years. The regime moved eventually toward policies of forced emigration, and finally toward the realization of a Germany “free of Jews” ( judenrein) by deportation of the Jewish population “to the East.” Nazis Smash, Loot and Burn Jewish Shops and Temples Until Goebbels Calls Halt", New York Times, 11 November 1938 Johnson, Eric. The Nazi Terror: Gestapo, Jews and Ordinary Germans. United States: Basic Books, 1999, p. 117. Walter Buch to Goring, 13.2.1939, Michaelis and Schraepler, Ursachen, Vol.12, p. 582 as cited in Friedländer, p. 271. Kristallnacht was also instrumental in changing global public opinion. In the United States, for instance, it was this specific incident which came to symbolize Nazism and it was also the reason as to why the Nazis became associated with evil. [82] Modern references [ edit ]

Vom Rath's assassination sparked what the Nazis had been planning for months, a nationwide pogrom and orgy of destruction against the Jews, across the Third Reich (Germany, Austria and Sudetenland). I have read many books on the Holocaust. This is the first book I’ve read that is a complete Kristallnacht history. Perkins, Tom (24 January 2014). "Progressive Kristallnacht Coming?". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 26 October 2014 . Retrieved 25 January 2014. The former German Kaiser Wilhelm II commented "For the first time, I am ashamed to be German." [47] Gilbert knowledgeably describes the chaos as Jews tried to escape from Germany to anywhere that would accept them. Germany wanted to purge itself of them and ‘Time to leave’ was the often quoted phrase. Some countries took many, some took none. The list of countries that refused to accept them and their reasons for doing so made for chilling reading.In 1989, Al Gore, then a senator from Tennessee and later Vice President of the United States, wrote of an "ecological Kristallnacht" in The New York Times. He opined that events which were then taking place, such as deforestation and ozone depletion, prefigured a greater environmental catastrophe in the same way that Kristallnacht prefigured the Holocaust. [84] a b Ross, Philip (27 January 2014). "Tom Perkins Responds To Nazi Germany And 1 Percent Criticism, Says Kristallnacht Was 'Terrible Word To Have Chosen' ". International Business Times. Archived from the original on 26 November 2015 . Retrieved 29 January 2014. The reaction of non-Jewish Germans to Kristallnacht was varied. Many spectators gathered on the scenes, most of them in silence. The local fire departments confined themselves to prevent the flames from spreading to neighboring buildings. In Berlin, police Lieutenant Otto Bellgardt barred SA troopers from setting the New Synagogue on fire, earning his superior officer a verbal reprimand from the commissioner. [55] Portrait of Paul Ehrlich, damaged on Kristallnacht, then restored by a German neighbor