Remembrance Day of the Crystal Night

The Crystal Night (Reichspogromnacht or Kristallnacht) was not the beginning of anti-Semitic agitation, persecution and marginalization, which had already begun years earlier, but it did mark a turning point. From then on, Jews in Germany had to fear for life and limb, and they could not expect any help from state institutions or civil society.

Thousands of stores and Jewish institutions were reduced to rubble by organized thugs on the night of 9/10 November 1938, hundreds of people were murdered and tens of thousands were subsequently arrested and deported. The riots planned by the National Socialist regime in Germany and Austria against Jews, their homes, synagogues and businesses marked the beginning of the openly brutal, systematic and state-sponsored persecution of Jews. They were the official prelude to an unprecedented genocide and crime against humanity that will forever be inscribed in human history and the history of Germany.