On November 9 and 10, 1938, Nazi officials instigated riots that resulted in the burning of more than 200 synagogues, the desecration of Jewish cemeteries, countless beatings, and the shattering the windows of some 7,500 Jewish shops in Germany and Austria. The broken glass in the streets prompted the name "Kristallnacht," or Crystal Night. The event was widely covered in the international press and the Nazi-coordinated attacks on Jews sent shockwaves around the world. (8 PHOTOS)
Kristallnacht: The 75th Anniversary Of The 'Night Of Broken Glass'
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A Jewish-run shop in Berlin after being vandalized and covered with anti-Semitic graffiti, November 10, 1938.
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A Jewish shop damaged during the "Kristallnacht" in Magdeburg, November 1938.
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The ruins of the Ohel Yaakov synagogue in Munich, November 1938.
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Herschel Grynszpan being taken to a Paris court on December 2, 1938. Grynszpan, a 16-year old Polish Jew who lived in Paris, shot and killed Ernst Vom Rath, a junior German diplomat on November 7, 1938, in the German Embassy in France. He staged the attack after hearing that his parents, brother, and sister were deported to Poland by Nazi authorities. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels ordered that the news of the assassination be carried on the front pages of all German newspapers. The assassination was used as a pretext to launch the massive pogrom against the German Jewish communities.
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A damaged Jewish shop in Magdeburg, November 1938.
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A synagogue being destroyed in Eisenach, November 1938.
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The gutted interior of the Fasanenstrasse Synagogue in Berlin, November 10, 1938.
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A Jewish-run shop in Berlin with the word "Jude" or "Jew" painted on its windows, November 10,1938.