A Night to Remember

In Germany in July, 1938, a law was passed requiring all Jews to carry identification cards, made easier after the census using IBM equipment , when racial classification was introduced. On October 28, 17,000 Jews of Polish citizenship, many of whom had been living in Germany for decades, were arrested and relocated across the Polish border.

Herschel Grynszpan, a German Jew who had fled to France, repeatedly tried to see Ernst vom Rath, Third Secretary of the German Embassy in Paris, about the concerns he had about his family who were being deported to Poland , Rath had no intention of being helpful.

Realising the futility of his pleas, on Monday, November 7, 1938 Grynszpan shot vom Rath in the stomach. He attempted and missed 3 additional shots. Two days later, on November 9, the secretary died.

That night a fateful message was sent from Heydrich, who was head of the Nazi Party security Police the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) which had been formed in 1931 and was quite distinct from the Uniformed Schutzstaffel (SS).

Message from SS-Grupenführer Heydrich to all State Police Main Offices and Field
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, November 9/10, 1938. The instructions below are to be applied in dealing with these events:……

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. ...more

So started the destruction of Jewish property in a orgy of broken glass resulting in the popular title of Kristallnacht (Crystal Night) a handy and popular name, but better known by the Nazi party as Pogromnacht or the start of the pogrom or cleansing of the Jews. Now academics call it Schicksalstag , meaning, "Day of Fate."

It was the start of what Jews now call the Holocaust.