On This Day in History: November 9

Kristallnacht

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Kristallnacht. It literally means “Night of crystal” but refers to the “Night of the broken glass,” and it was an example of how an evil government can inspire its citizens to do horrible things, such as murder hundreds of Jews.

--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: November 9, 1938--

Another word for you: pogrom. It’s a riot designed to massacre or at least expel a specific group. The word has become particularly associated with Jewish people for how often they’ve been the target of such violence. The night of November 9, 1938, in Nazi Germany was one such pogrom. It’s worth noting that while Kristallnacht is the universally used name, a small minority prefer the term Pogromnacht.

Since 1933, when murderous fascist fuckpuddle Hitler came to rule Germany, the nation increasingly persecuted its Jewish population. Antisemitism and ultranationalism defined the fucking Nazis. There were calls to boycott Jewish businesses and remove any Jews from civil service. Jews were forbidden from marrying or even having sex with members of the “Aryan race.” Continues below …

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Herschel Grynszpan was fucking pissed. A 17-year-old living in Paris, he was a German-born Polish Jew. When he learned his parents were deported to Poland by the fucking Nazis just for being Jewish, he sought revenge by shooting German diplomat Ernst vom Rath on November 7, 1938. When vom Rath died two days later, fucking Nazi propaganda minister and psychotically antisemitic piece of shit Joseph Goebbels used the event to whip the population into a homicidal anti-Jewish frenzy.

Mobs of Nazi cockblobs across the land vandalized and burned thousands of Jewish homes and businesses and synagogues. Hundreds of Jews were murdered, and 30,000 arrested and sent to concentration camps. There was also a lot of rape, as well as suicide because the trauma of the night was too much for some to bear. The name of the infamous event comes from the shattered windows that littered Jewish neighborhoods in the aftermath.

This was before World War II began, so there were still plenty of foreign reporters in Germany to tell the tale of what happened. Hugh Green wrote in the Daily Telegraph: “Mob law ruled in Berlin throughout the afternoon and evening and hordes of hooligans indulged in an orgy of destruction. I have seen several anti-Jewish outbreaks in Germany during the last five years, but never anything as nauseating as this. Racial hatred and hysteria seemed to have taken complete hold of otherwise decent people.” He also described mothers holding their small children up to see the “fun.” Fucking hell. Reminds me of a certain Trumpy insurrection.

In the aftermath, the Jewish population was collectively fined the equivalent of $7 billion for the murder of vom Rath by having 20% of their property confiscated. The international outrage was palpable, and it led to a decrease in support for Nazi parties abroad. World opinion turned against Nazi Germany, but Kristallnacht was only a harbinger of much worse to come.

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