Jewish Life in Nazi Germany: Kristallnacht

Hitler's Reich in the 1930s - the propaganda of the Nazi regime appeals to the German ethnic community, and decides who belongs where, from childhood onwards. Those who don't fit the picture, such as the Jews, are disdained, disenfranchised, persecuted. It begins with the boycotting of Jewish businesses, and leads ever more frequently to violence.

GEORG STEFAN TROLLER: "Things previously frowned upon by the state were suddenly permitted. Anything was allowed. We had become fair game, they could do to us whatever they wanted."
On November 7, 1938, a Polish Jew shoots a German diplomat in Paris. His family are threatened with deportation - a welcome pretext for the Nazis. The Nazi leadership gives the signal to attack, and issues orders to party followers: Synagogues and Jewish businesses are to burn. The 9th of November is the Night of the Broken Glass. In hundreds of locations, Nazis set synagogues ablaze. Symbols and testimonies of Jewish culture are destroyed.

COCO SCHUMANN: "Suddenly there was clattering, and the window panes shattered."
SA commandos prey on Jewish people.

SCHUMANN: "I heard screaming and looked up - people were being pushed out of the window."
Police have been ordered to not intervene. Many Germans become spectators to the violence.

LORE MAY: "There were 500, 600 people - Germans, shouting and singing. There was a lady, I couldn't see her face. They pulled her down the street by her hair."
Most look the other way, but some come to the Jews' aid in secret.

ERNST BEHM: "The fear was so great that we often didn't have the courage to help our Jewish fellow citizens. Many were helped, more than one might think, but all in secret."
In this one night alone over 1,400 synagogues are destroyed.

INGE DEUTSCHKRON: "That was the turning point. That was when the Jews in Germany understood they could no longer live in peace as German Jews. That became clear after this night of violence."
More than 400 Jews are beaten, shot, or driven to suicide. The Night of the Broken Glass is a dire warning for the impending fate of the Jews in Germany.