Kristallnacht is not and was not an internet myth, a political fantasy, or a cinematic invention. It was a real and organized anti-Jewish pogrom carried out across Nazi Germany during the night of November 9–10, 1938. Synagogues were burned, Jewish businesses were destroyed, thousands were arrested, and the terror that would later become the Holocaust openly began in the streets of Europe.
In 1933, approximately 9.500.000 Jews lived in Europe, comprising 1.7% of the total European population. This number represented more than 60 percent of the world’s Jewish Population at that time, estimated at 15.3 million. The majority of Jews in prewar Europa resided in Eastern Europe: Poland, 3.000.000; Soviet Union, 2.525.000; Romania, 756.000; Germany, 500.000; Hungary, 445.000; Czechoslovakia, 357.000; Great Britain, 300.000; France, 250.000; Austria, 191.000; Netherlands, 156.000; Lithuania, 155.000; Latvia, 95.600; Greece, 73.000; Yugoslavia, 68.000; Belgium, 60.000; Bulgaria, 48.500; Italy, 48.000; Sweden, 5700; Denmark, 5700; Estonia, 4560; Spain, 4000; Finland, 1800; Norway, 1400; Portugal, 1200; Albania, 200. Before the Nazis seized power in 1933, Europe had a richly diverse set of Jewish cultures, many of which were dynamic and highly developed, that drew from hundreds, and in some areas, a thousand or more years of Jewish life on the continent. The diverse nature of individual Jewish communities in occupations, religious practices, involvement and integration in regional and national life, and other areas made for a fruitful and multifarious Jewish life across Europe. In many countries, Jews stood as cultural and political luminaries and had marched alongside non-Jews in World War I. In little more than a decade, most of Europe would be conquered, occupied, or annexed by Nazi Germany and its Axis partners, and the majority of European Jews – two out of every three – would be dead.
Reviewed by Doc Snafu on May 18, 2026.
Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass)
The term Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) refers to the November 9 and 10, 1938, organized Anti-Jewish Riots in Germany and Austria. These riots marked a major transition in the Nazi policy, and were, in many ways, a harbinger of the Final Solution. Nazi antisemitic policy began with the systematic legal, economic, and social disenfranchisement of the Jews. This was accomplished in various stages (e.g., the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, which, among other things, stripped German Jews of their citizenship).
Nuremberg Race Laws 1935
At the annual party rally held in Nuremberg in 1935, the Nazis announced new laws which institutionalized many of the racial theories prevalent in Nazi ideology. The laws excluded German Jews from Reich citizenship and prohibited them from marrying or having sexual relations with persons of German or related blood. Ancillary ordinances to the laws disenfranchised Jews and deprived them of most political rights. The Nuremberg Laws, as they became known, did not define a Jew as someone with particular religious beliefs. Instead, anyone who had three or four Jewish grandparents was defined as a Jew, regardless of whether that individual identified himself or herself as a Jew or belonged to the Jewish religious community. Many Germans who had not practiced Judaism for years found themselves caught in the grip of Nazi terror. Even people with Jewish grandparents who had converted to Christianity were defined as Jews.
The Nazis staged vicious pogroms—state-sanctioned, Anti-Jewish riots—against the Jewish community of Germany. These came to be known as Kristallnacht (now commonly translated as Night of Broken Glass), a reference to the untold numbers of broken windows of synagogues, Jewish-owned stores, community centers, and homes plundered and destroyed during the pogroms. Encouraged by the Nazi regime, the rioters burned or destroyed 267 synagogues, vandalized or looted 7500 Jewish businesses, and killed at least 91 Jewish people. They also damaged many Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, schools, and homes as police and fire brigades stood aside. Kristallnacht was a turning point in history. The pogroms marked an intensification of Nazi anti-Jewish policy that would culminate in the Holocaust, the systematic, state-sponsored murder of Jews.
Historical Correction: by M. Meier Schwarz, Synagogue Memorial, Jerusalem, in cooperation with Karin Lange.
Germany are often referred to as (Reich-Kristallnacht (Crystall Night) – even today, and even by respected historians. Horst Stickmann justifiably calls this word a description that plays down this event, suggesting that all that happened was a few shattered windows. (Verharmlosende Bezeichnung, die suggerieren soll, als seien damals lediglich einige Fensterscheiben zu Bruch gegangen.) The expression Kristallnacht disguises all the atrocities committed against the Jewish population during this one night. As Avraham Barkai puts it in his essay Schicksalsjahr 1938 (Doom’s Year 1938): Kristallnacht! It flashes, glitters, and twinkles – just like a celebration! It’s about time for this ill-natured, belittling term to disappear from historiography. (Kristallnacht! Das funkelt, blitzt und glitzert wie bei einem Fest! Es wäre längst Zeit, dass diese böswillig-verharmlosende Bezeichnung zumindest aus der Geschichtsschreibung verschwende. Calling it a pogrom would be more accurate.
2: More than 60 years after the pogrom, it is not only linguistics that needs to be fixed. Even more important is to debunk the lies surrounding the Kristallnacht, concerning the number of martyrs and destroyed synagogues. The head of the security forces, SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, mentions on November 11, 1938, in a temporary report of the planned pogrom carried out two days ago in all of Germany, that within the Jewish population there were 36 casualties and another 36, who were severely injured. Even though the secret account of the High Court of Germany revised this number on February 13, 1939, and talks about 91 casualties, it is this number, 36, that was considered the final number of victims in academic literature, to this very day. Even the Simon Wiesenthal Center mentions in a memorial text on the 50th anniversary of the pogrom that the number of casualties was 36, even though some consider it to be 91. 91, then, is the highest number of casualties mentioned in academic literature.
This figure, however, is far below the true number. Furthermore, it is considered to be the newest scientific stand, even though current research has disproved it: Hermann Graml, for example, pointed out in 1988, that the victims of the November pogrom consist not only of the Jews who died on the actual night of the pogrom, but also of those that were taken to the concentration camps (Dachau, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen) that night and died there later as a result of cruel abuse. Graml estimates the number of people who didn’t return home from the camps to be several hundred. Also, Wolfgang Benz estimates (in a research conducted in 1988) the number of casualties to be higher than hitherto estimated. He stresses that the number of victims includes not only those people who died as a result of consequential damage and injuries, but also those who committed suicide as a result of the pogrom, even if the suicide occurred later.
They (the ones who committed suicide) must be considered direct victims of the pogrom (müssen als direkte Opfer des Pogroms gelten). Already in 1981, Heinz Lauber mentions that the number of suicide cases connected directly or indirectly to the pogrom can hardly be reconstructed (Zahl der Freitode in direktem und vor allem indirektem Zusammenhang mit dem Judenpogrom November 1938 kaum noch rekonstruieren lässt). Spreading awareness of the high number of martyrs, including the suicide and concentration camp victims, was the starting point of a research project of the synagogue memorial. After detailed work with documents from the former concentration camps, interviews with descendants of the victims, etc., our research team concluded that the overall number of victims of the pogrom night lies around 1300-1500. It is our aim to complete this list, including hitherto unknown victims. It has to be mentioned here that the victims of the pogrom are normally not included as victims of the holocaust, since it preceded it. However, we think that the burning of synagogues was an omen of Auschwitz (brennenden Synagogen […] Voraussignal für Ausschwitz).
3: Historiography not only underestimates the number of martyrs. Also, in the topic of destroyed or burned synagogues, incorrect numbers have constantly been quoted. In the above-mentioned letter of Heydrich to Göring (Nov 11, 1938) the number of burned synagogues is mentioned as 191, with another 76 damaged (An Synagogen wurden 191 in Brand gesteckt, weitere 76 vollständig demoliert.) The number of 267 ruined synagogues found their way into practically every work of historical research related to this topic. There is hardly any researcher who doubted this number or at least tried to prove its correctness. Whether this naive belief in the truthfulness of one written source is an indication of scientific quality may be up to the reader to decide. The few researchers who doubted this number, such as Avraham Barkai and Ronald Flade, were considered dissident voices and often attacked for their findings. After years of research, Synagogue Memorial found that the true number of destroyed or burned synagogues during the pogrom is 1574 (more than 5 times as many as the hitherto used number). Our aim is to remember each and every one of them.
4: The scars of the pogrom will probably never heal! Nevertheless, recounting this historic event on a full scale will make it easier for the victims and their descendants to cope with it. Together with the synagogues, the centers of Jewish life were burned down. The step to the destruction of Jewish life itself, to genocide, was very small. It began the same night The holocaust began there, in view of the whole German population. They knew enough not to want to know more.
One of these steps involved the deportation of Polish Jews who were residing in Germany (est. 56.500). On the night of Oct 27, 1938, 18.000 Polish Jews were deported, but were initially refused entry into Poland by the Polish authorities. Caught in between, the Jews were forced to camp out in makeshift shelters. Upon hearing that his family was so trapped, 17 year-old Herschel Grynszpan, a student in Paris, shot the third secretary of the German Embassy, Ernst vom Rath, whom he mistook for the ambassador. This assassination served as a welcome pretext for the German initiation of the Nov 1938 Pogrom known as the Kristallnacht. Reinhard Heydrich (the head of the Reich Main Security Office, which oversaw the Gestapo, police, and SD operations) sent a secret telegram at 0120, Nov 10, 1938, to all headquarters and stations of the State Police; all districts and sub-districts of the SD. He gave instructions for the immediate coordination of police and political activities in inciting the riots throughout Germany and Austria.
Secret (Most Urgent telegram from Munich, of November 10, 1938, 0120)
To:
All Headquarters and Stations of the State Police
All districts and Sub-districts of the SD
Urgent! For immediate attention of the Chief or his deputy!
Re: Measures against Jews tonight
Following the attempt on the life of Secretary of the Legation vom Rath in Paris, demonstrations against the Jews are to be expected in all parts of the Reich in the course of the coming night, Nov 9/10, 1938. The instructions below are to be applied in dealing with these events.
1: The Chiefs of the State Police, or their deputies, must immediately upon receipt of this telegram contact, by telephone, the political leaders in their areas – Gauleiter or Kreisleiter – who have jurisdiction in their districts and arrange a joint meeting with the inspector or commander of the Order Police to discuss the arrangements for the demonstrations. At these discussions, the political leaders will be informed that the German Police has received instructions, detailed below, from the Reichsführer SS and the Chief of the German Police, with which the political leadership is requested to coordinate its own measures:
– (a) Only such measures are to be taken as do not endanger German lives or property (i.e., synagogues are to be burned down only where there is no danger of fire in neighboring buildings);
– (b) Places of business and apartments belonging to Jews may be destroyed but not looted. The police is instructed to supervise the observance of this order and to arrest looters;
– (c) In commercial streets, particular care is to be taken that non-Jewish businesses are completely protected against damage; (d) Foreign citizens – even if they are Jews – are not to be molested.
2: On the assumption that the guidelines detailed under para. 1 are observed, the demonstrations are not to be prevented by the Police, which is only to supervise the observance of the guidelines.
3: On receipt of this telegram, the police will seize all archives to be found in all synagogues and offices of the Jewish communities so as to prevent their destruction during the demonstrations. This refers only to material of historical value, not to contemporary tax records, etc. The archives are to be handed over to the locally responsible officers of the SD.
4: The control of the measures of the Security Police concerning the demonstrations against the Jews is vested in the organs of the State Police, unless inspectors of the Security Police have given their own instructions. Officials of the Criminal Police, members of the SD, of the Reserves and the SS in general may be used to carry out the measures taken by the Security Police.
5: As soon as the course of events during the night permits the release of the officials required, as many Jews in all districts – especially the rich – as can be accommodated in existing prisons are to be arrested. For the time being only healthy male Jews, who are not too old, are to be detained. After the detentions have been carried out, the appropriate concentration camps are to be contacted immediately for the prompt accommodation of the Jews in the camps. Special care is to be taken that the Jews arrested in accordance with these instructions are not ill-treated.
Heydrich
SS Gruppenführer
Reinhard Heydrich (right) was one of the main architects of the “Final Solution.” He was chief of the Reich Security Main Office, the SS and police agency most directly concerned with implementing the Nazi plan to murder Jews of Europe during World War II.
Der Ewige Jude (film review by Joseph Goebbels 1938)
The film begins with an impressive expedition through the Jewish Ghettos in Poland. We are shown Jewish living quarters, which in our view cannot be called houses. In these dirty rooms live and pray a race, which earns its living not by work but by haggling and swindling. From the little urchin to the old man, they stand in the streets, trading and bargaining. Using trick photography, we are shown how the Jewish racial mixture in Asia Minor developed and flooded the entire world. We see a parallel to this in the itinerant routes of rats, which are the parasites and bacillus-carriers among animals, just as the Jews occupy the same position among mankind. The Jew has always known how to assimilate his external appearance to that of his host. Contrasted are the same Jewish types, first the Eastern Jew with his kaftans, beard, and sideburns, and then the clean-shaven, Western European Jew. This strikingly demonstrates how he has deceived the Aryan people. Under this mask, he increased his influence more and more in Aryan nations and climbed to higher-ranking positions. But he could not change his inner being.
After the banishment of the Jews from Europe was lifted, following the age of Enlightenment, the Jew succeeded within the course of several decades in dominating the world economy, before the various host nations realized – and this although they made up only 1 per cent of the world population. An excerpt from an American film about the Rothschild’s, made by Jews, reveals to us the cunning foundations of their banking empire.
Then we see how Jews, working for their international finance, drive the German people into the November Revolution. They then shed their anonymity and step out openly onto the stage of political and cultural life. Thus, the men who were responsible for the disgraceful debasement of the German people are paraded before us. Incontestable examples are shown of how they robbed the country and the people of immense sums. As well as gaining financial supremacy, they were able to dominate cultural life. The repulsive pictures of so-called Jewish “art” reveal the complete decline of cultural life at that time.
Using original sequences from contemporary films, the degrading and destructive tendency of Jewish Power is exposed. For hundreds of years, German artists have glorified figures from the Old Testament, knowing full well the real face of Jewry. How the Jew actually looks like is shown in scenes shot by Jews themselves in a “culture film” of a Purim Festival, which is still celebrated today to commemorate the slaughter of 75.000 Anti-Semitic Persians, and the doctrine with which future Rabbis in Jewish schools are educated to be political pedagogues. We look into a Jewish ‘Talmud’ class and experience the oriental tone of the ceremony in a Jewish Synagogue, where Jews conduct business deals among themselves during the holy services. However, the cruel face of Judaism is most brutally displayed in the final scenes, in which original shots of a kosher butchering are revealed. These film documents of the inhuman slaughter of cattle and sheep without anesthesia provide conclusive evidence of a brutality which is simply inconceivable to all Aryan People. In shining contrast, the film closes with pictures of German people and German order, which fill the viewer with a feeling of deep gratification for belonging to a race whose Führer is fundamentally solving the Jewish problem.
