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Kristallnacht: Map of Synagogue Destruction

(November 9-10, 1938)

Kristallnacht - figuratively translated from German to Night of Broken Glass - refers to the violent anti-Jewish pogrom of November 9 and 10, 1938, that occurred throughout Nazi-occupied Germany, including Austria, East Prussia and the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia.

Hundreds of synagogues were attacked, vandalized and looted and dozens were set ablaze and destroyed. Firemen were instructed to let the synagogues burn but to prevent the flames from spreading to nearby structures. Additionally, shop windows in thousands of Jewish-owned stores were smashed and the wares within looted. Jewish cemeteries were also desecrated and many Jews were attacked by mobs of Storm Troopers (SA). At least 91 Jews died in the pogrom.


Sources: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum