By Daniel M Delott

Thousands of Jewish homes and almost 8,000 Jewish shops were ransacked and destroyed during what is now known as Kristallnacht, or “Night of the Broken Glass”, throughout Germany on the 9th and 10th of November 1938. Both the Sturmabteilung (SA) and the Schutzstaffel (SS) rampaged Germany with sledgehammers as they smashed windows, doors, and buildings belonging to or housing Jewish families and businesses. It was during this part of the timeline of World War 2 that more than 30,000 Jewish men were taken away to concentration camps, more than 1,600 synagogues ransacked, and many Jews beaten to death in their homes and on the street.

Adolf Hitler, the mad man behind all events to cleanse Germany of the Jews and other unclean races, planned for this event to take place on Martin Luther’s birthday. Hitler, at this point on the timeline of World War 2, was following the outline set forth by Luther in 1543 in his writing On the Jews and Their Lies. However, it is proclaimed that the whole incident was set in motion by Herschel Grynszpan, a 17-year-old Jew, when he shot and killed a German Embassy staff member in Paris in retaliation for the way his family suffered at the hands of the Nazis.

Almost two weeks prior to Kristallnacht, more than 15,000 Jews including Grynszpan’s family, all originally from Poland were forcibly expelled from Germany by train and dumped at the Polish border. The world’s reaction to Hitler’s “bloody vengeance against the Jews” was not well received by any means. The United States recalled its German ambassador permanently immediately following the event.

Take a deep breath and check out Timeline For World War 2 for even more articles on this fascinating time in our world’s history.

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