82 years ago #OnThisDay the #Kristallnacht pogrom took place. Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues were attacked across Germany and Austria and in areas of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia recently occupied by German troops throughout the night of the 9-10 November.
Hundreds of synagogues and Jewish institutions were attacked and destroyed. SA and Hitler Youth members shattered the shop windows of an estimated 7,500 Jewish-owned commercial establishments and looted them. Cemeteries became a particular object of desecration in many regions.
The pogrom was especially destructive in Berlin and Vienna, the two largest Jewish communities in these areas.
The SS and the Gestapo, following Heydrich's instructions, arrested up to 30,000 Jewish men and transferred most of them from local prisons to Dachau, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen, and other concentration camps.
Kristallnacht marks the first instance where the Nazi regime incarcerated Jews on a large scale because of their ethnicity. While most were released on the condition that they started to emigrate, hundreds died in the camps as a result of the treatment they went through.
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We have worked with several Holocaust survivors who witnessed Kristallnacht. Below are some of their testimonies.
Ernest witnessed Kristallnacht. From his bedroom window, he could see the prayer books and Torah scrolls from the synagogue on his road being deliberately burned.
"Life as I had known it, stopped"
Susan Oppenheimer was a Jewish teenager in Nuremberg when Kristallnacht happened. Read her account of Kristallnacht from our 70 Voices resource: 70voices.org.uk/content/day11
Walter Kammerling BEM, who turned 97 this year, witnessed Kristallnacht. His parents decided to send him to Britain on the Kindertransport. Read his testimony here: het.org.uk/survivors-walt…
If you want to find out more about Kristallnacht we have a list of resources below.
Martin Winstone, the Trust's Education Officer, wrote on the origins and impact of Kristallnacht: het.org.uk/news-and-event…
Teachers: we look at Kristallnacht and its aftermath through the words of its victims in our Nazi Persecution of Jews in Germany lesson, available free as part of our Exploring the Holocaust scheme of work: het.org.uk/exploring-the-…
In this special blog originally to mark the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, we are privileged to be able to share the memories of Holocaust survivor Freddie Knoller BEM.
“It is hard to put into words the loss of Rabbi Lord Sacks – an indomitable titan of the Jewish community.
He was an Ambassador for our community, for this country and beyond. His supreme intellect, endless books and writings reached far beyond our shores. His vision, leadership and wisdom changed our world for the better as the greatest modern religious thinker of our time.
This evening 36 teachers from across the UK and the Channel Islands will be joining us for the start of our Exploring the Holocaust: UK residential #TeacherCPD course. We’ve got a brilliant programme planned...
...with sessions from our Education Officers, Ben, Cat and Jess, and our Senior Historical Advisor Martin and a variety of expert speakers who are experts in different aspects of the Holocaust. We’ll discuss...
...approaches to teaching about the Holocaust in the primary and secondary classroom, as well as modelling some of the resources which can be found on our website here: het.org.uk/login...