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Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction
On November 7, 1938, a young Jew, enraged by his family's expulsion from Germany, walked into the German embassy in Paris and fired five shots at a junior diplomat. Three days later the diplomat was dead, and Germany was in the grips of skillfully orchestrated anti-Jewish violence. In the early hours of November 10, Nazi storm troopers and Hitler Youth rampaged through Jewish neighborhoods across Germany, leaving behind them a horrifying trail of terror and destruction. More than a thousand synagogues and many thousands of Jewish shops were destroyed, while thirty thousand Jews were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. This was the moment when deliberately inflamed hatreds ignited nationwide destruction. With rare insight and acumen, Martin Gilbert, one of the leading historians of our time, examines Kristallnacht -- the Night of Broken Glass -- and describes how the rest of the world reacted in its wake. His narration of that night and day of terror is chilling, vividly conveying its scale and intensity through more than fifty previously unpublished eyewitness testimonies and graphic newspaper accounts of the events as they unfolded. No other attack on Jews during the course of the Second World War was as widely reported by contemporary observers. Kristallnacht marked the beginning of the systematic eradication of a people who traced their origins in Germany to Roman times and was a sinister fore-warning of the Holocaust. By setting the tone for the terrible war to follow, it shaped the second half of the twentieth century and continues to haunt us, almost seventy years later. Meticulously researched and masterfully written, this is an eye-opening study of one of the darkest chapters in human history.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
12 people are currently reading
986 people want to read
About the author
Martin Gilbert
249 books417 followersThe official biographer of Winston Churchill and a leading historian on the Twentieth Century, Sir Martin Gilbert was a scholar and an historian who, though his 88 books, has shown there is such a thing as “true history”
Born in London in 1936, Martin Gilbert was educated at Highgate School, and Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with First Class Honours. He was a Research Scholar at St Anthony's College, and became a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford in 1962, and an Honorary Fellow in 1994. After working as a researcher for Randolph Churchill, Gilbert was chosen to take over the writing of the Churchill biography upon Randolph's death in 1968, writing six of the eight volumes of biography and editing twelve volumes of documents. In addition, Gilbert has written pioneering and classic works on the First and Second World Wars, the Twentieth Century, the Holocaust, and Jewish history.
Gilbert drove every aspect of his books, from finding archives to corresponding with eyewitnesses and participants that gave his work veracity and meaning, to finding and choosing illustrations, drawing maps that mention each place in the text, and compiling the indexes. He travelled widely lecturing and researching, advised political figures and filmmakers, and gave a voice and a name “to those who fought and those who fell.”
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Born in London in 1936, Martin Gilbert was educated at Highgate School, and Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with First Class Honours. He was a Research Scholar at St Anthony's College, and became a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford in 1962, and an Honorary Fellow in 1994. After working as a researcher for Randolph Churchill, Gilbert was chosen to take over the writing of the Churchill biography upon Randolph's death in 1968, writing six of the eight volumes of biography and editing twelve volumes of documents. In addition, Gilbert has written pioneering and classic works on the First and Second World Wars, the Twentieth Century, the Holocaust, and Jewish history.
Gilbert drove every aspect of his books, from finding archives to corresponding with eyewitnesses and participants that gave his work veracity and meaning, to finding and choosing illustrations, drawing maps that mention each place in the text, and compiling the indexes. He travelled widely lecturing and researching, advised political figures and filmmakers, and gave a voice and a name “to those who fought and those who fell.”
https://twitter.com/sirmartin36
https://www.facebook.com/sirmartingil...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews
November 22, 2024
On November 7 1938, a 17 year old German Jew, Herschel Grynszpan, enraged by the suffering of his parents, who had been expelled from Germany together with 12 000 other Jews, walked into the German embassy in Paris and shot junior German diplomat Ernst vom Rath, who died three days later.
Vom Rath's assassination sparked what the Nazis had been planning for months, a nationwide pogrom and orgy of destruction against the Jews, across the Third Reich (Germany, Austria and Sudetenland).
On on November 8 it had been announced that Jewish children could no longer attend "Aryan" state elementary schools, something that had hitherto been allowed where there were not sufficient Jewish elementary schools. At the same time all Jewish cultural activities were suspended "indefinitely.
On the night of the 9-10 November Kristallnacht took place co-ordinated by the Nazi leadership.
That night 91 Jews were murdered, and 25,000-30,000 were arrested and deported to concentration camps.
In the early hours of November 10, coordinated destruction broke out in cities, towns and villages throughout the Third Reich.
More than 2 000 synagogues were destroyed and tens of thousands of Jewish businesses and homes ransacked.
In this disturbing and heart wrenching work, Gilbert gathers together hundreds of eye witness accounts of the Kristallnacht atrocities.
As one British newspaper reported:"Brownshirts smashed their way into Jewish houses, tore down their curtains, slashed carpets and upholstery with knives and broke up the furniture...Terrified children were turned sobbing out of their beds, which were then smashed to pieces.
Extremely disturbing is the refusal of the nations of the world to take in Jewish refugees.
Between January 1933 and March 1938 more than 35 000 German Jews were granted immigration certificates to Palestine. Following the 1936 Arab Revolt, the British restricted Jewish immigration the Holy Land to 3000 a year.
On November 30 1939 the Jewish National Council for Palestine offered to take 10 000 German Jewish children into the Holy Land to be dispersed among the 250 Jewish agricultural and urban centres there.
To appease the Arabs in Palestine and Muslims in India and other parts of the British Empire the offer to take the children was rejected.
The British authorities turned back Jewish ships full of refugees and put pressure on the governments of Yugoslavia, Romania, Turkey and Greece not to allow Jewish refugees passage through their territories to the Holy Land.
Haven't enough Jewish lives been sacrificed to appease Muslim rage?
Proposals were made to settle Jewish in British Guiana, Brazil, Madagascar, Uganda and Tanganyika but all were abandoned.
A proposal to resettle Jews in Newfoundland in Canada was rejected due to public pressure from the local population there. Ireland. US Secretary of State Cordell Hull blocked a proposal by the Legislative Council of the Virgin Islands to take in refugees from the Nazis claiming it was 'incompatible with existing law".
The book is an important testimony and contains hitherto unrevealed accounts.
It is an account of how hatred can lead to destruction on such a massive scale.
Today we are faced with Jew-hatred on a scale as great as that of the Nazis in the form of hatred of Israel.
If this is not stopped who knows where it will lead?
Vom Rath's assassination sparked what the Nazis had been planning for months, a nationwide pogrom and orgy of destruction against the Jews, across the Third Reich (Germany, Austria and Sudetenland).
On on November 8 it had been announced that Jewish children could no longer attend "Aryan" state elementary schools, something that had hitherto been allowed where there were not sufficient Jewish elementary schools. At the same time all Jewish cultural activities were suspended "indefinitely.
On the night of the 9-10 November Kristallnacht took place co-ordinated by the Nazi leadership.
That night 91 Jews were murdered, and 25,000-30,000 were arrested and deported to concentration camps.
In the early hours of November 10, coordinated destruction broke out in cities, towns and villages throughout the Third Reich.
More than 2 000 synagogues were destroyed and tens of thousands of Jewish businesses and homes ransacked.
In this disturbing and heart wrenching work, Gilbert gathers together hundreds of eye witness accounts of the Kristallnacht atrocities.
As one British newspaper reported:"Brownshirts smashed their way into Jewish houses, tore down their curtains, slashed carpets and upholstery with knives and broke up the furniture...Terrified children were turned sobbing out of their beds, which were then smashed to pieces.
Extremely disturbing is the refusal of the nations of the world to take in Jewish refugees.
Between January 1933 and March 1938 more than 35 000 German Jews were granted immigration certificates to Palestine. Following the 1936 Arab Revolt, the British restricted Jewish immigration the Holy Land to 3000 a year.
On November 30 1939 the Jewish National Council for Palestine offered to take 10 000 German Jewish children into the Holy Land to be dispersed among the 250 Jewish agricultural and urban centres there.
To appease the Arabs in Palestine and Muslims in India and other parts of the British Empire the offer to take the children was rejected.
The British authorities turned back Jewish ships full of refugees and put pressure on the governments of Yugoslavia, Romania, Turkey and Greece not to allow Jewish refugees passage through their territories to the Holy Land.
Haven't enough Jewish lives been sacrificed to appease Muslim rage?
Proposals were made to settle Jewish in British Guiana, Brazil, Madagascar, Uganda and Tanganyika but all were abandoned.
A proposal to resettle Jews in Newfoundland in Canada was rejected due to public pressure from the local population there. Ireland. US Secretary of State Cordell Hull blocked a proposal by the Legislative Council of the Virgin Islands to take in refugees from the Nazis claiming it was 'incompatible with existing law".
The book is an important testimony and contains hitherto unrevealed accounts.
It is an account of how hatred can lead to destruction on such a massive scale.
Today we are faced with Jew-hatred on a scale as great as that of the Nazis in the form of hatred of Israel.
If this is not stopped who knows where it will lead?
October 29, 2017
Excellent detailed description of many of the events of Kristallknacht, plus prelude and after.
But what's missing are some crucial things I want to know for my novel: Who put the plan together? When? Who gave the order to proceed? How was that order communicated and coordinated so quickly to virtually every locale in Germany?
If you know a source for those answers, please let me know.
***
NOTE 10/29: I have since found the source of the Kristallknacht orders (it was Heydrich) and have included these events in the sequel to A FLOOD OF EVIL which I am currently writing.
But what's missing are some crucial things I want to know for my novel: Who put the plan together? When? Who gave the order to proceed? How was that order communicated and coordinated so quickly to virtually every locale in Germany?
If you know a source for those answers, please let me know.
***
NOTE 10/29: I have since found the source of the Kristallknacht orders (it was Heydrich) and have included these events in the sequel to A FLOOD OF EVIL which I am currently writing.
October 24, 2024
So this book is good for witness accounts of what happened on Kristaalnacht, but there was much I wish it had and explained which it didn’t.
We know it happened because of the shooting in France and that hitler ordered it himself, but there must have secretly been much more planning and organisation this book doesn’t go into?
The next thing, many of the perpetrators must still have been alive, even after the war?
The author should have found and interviewed some.
Obviously there would have been some who try excuse their actions, and that would have been wrong, but as a history it would make it interesting, and there might also be some who might be ashamed of what they did, and that would also be interesting.
He should have also focussed more on the reasoning of the state to put Jewish men in consentration camps and discussed the treatment of the Jews there.
Supposedly it was ‘protective custody’ but he doesn’t go into detail, and this wasn’t the war yet, so the Holocaust mass killing hadn’t started.
Like I said, not enough info about nazi planning.
Nice part of book though shows how some people tried hiding Jews and getting them out of Germany.
Book describes scenes of Kristaalnacht from parts of Austria and Germany. They mostly similar to each other.
We know it happened because of the shooting in France and that hitler ordered it himself, but there must have secretly been much more planning and organisation this book doesn’t go into?
The next thing, many of the perpetrators must still have been alive, even after the war?
The author should have found and interviewed some.
Obviously there would have been some who try excuse their actions, and that would have been wrong, but as a history it would make it interesting, and there might also be some who might be ashamed of what they did, and that would also be interesting.
He should have also focussed more on the reasoning of the state to put Jewish men in consentration camps and discussed the treatment of the Jews there.
Supposedly it was ‘protective custody’ but he doesn’t go into detail, and this wasn’t the war yet, so the Holocaust mass killing hadn’t started.
Like I said, not enough info about nazi planning.
Nice part of book though shows how some people tried hiding Jews and getting them out of Germany.
Book describes scenes of Kristaalnacht from parts of Austria and Germany. They mostly similar to each other.
November 5, 2020
Somber accounting of the Kristallnacht anti-Jewish destruction throughout Germany and Austria on the eve of World War II. In a single night, SA and SS Nazi officials led civilian rioters in smashing and burning synagogues, Jewish-owned shops, and destroying the contents of homes occupied by Jewish families. From this point on, the net being drawn around Jewish citizens in Germany and Nazi-controlled areas accelerated. While some consulate officials in Germany tried to facilitate Jewish emigration, nations such as the United States placed barriers to entry just as the danger to Jews in Germany spiked. Once France and the UK declared war on Germany in September 1939, the trap was forever closed, sealing the fate of millions of Jews.
October 15, 2018
Easily the saddest book I've read this year. "Kristallnacht" is the name for the infamous Nazi pogrom against German and Austrian Jews on November 9-10, 1938. The Nazis would insist this was spontaneous eruption by the Germans against the Jews after the (eventually successful) assassination attempt against a German diplomat in Paris by a young German-Polish Jew. The assassin, Herschel Grynszpan, was upset over the late October expulsion from Germany of all Polish Jews (including Grynszpan's family), which resulted in a hellish in-between existence in Polish border refugee camps. The Poles were at first reluctant to accept them. The Poles reluctance would be repeated Worldwide by numerous countries in the terrifying months to come.
Upon the German diplomat's death, hell was unleashed in Jews throughout the Reich. Gilbert grimly excels here, as he tells in account after account the destruction of Jewish homes, businesses, and places of worship. In addition, many of the men were carted off to concentration camps. From the notes in the book, it appears Gilbert collected many of these accounts (a great deal of them from people were children or young adults at the time). In account after account, the same Nazi template presents itself with loud knocks on the door from a gang of SA thugs, and then destruction, beatings, and sometimes worse. There is brutal sameness to these attacks that strongly suggest planning and targeting. Gilbert never really dwells on this, maybe because the hard evidence has never been uncovered or maybe just because it's obvious. I don't know.
Anyway, this brutal account lasts for a little over half the book. What follows is the attempt by many of the Jews to get out of Germany. It was not such an easy thing, as the Nazis were hardly helpful, and other European countries argued over refugee quotas. This part of the book is also quite sad, but it is punctuated by some real heroes, such as Captain Frank Foley, the British Passport Control Officer in Berlin (also a spy), and Dr. Feng Shan Ho, the Chinese Consul General in Vienna. Both men would work night and day to help Jews to emigrate to both Britain and China. They saved thousands. And there were others (the "Righteous" as Gilbert calls them) that history has also forgotten. As the window to escape closes, the beginnings of the Final Solution start to reveal themselves.
Generally, my reading experience when it comes to "Kristallnacht" usually has involved a few pages in larger histories of the War and Nazi Germany. Gilbert has provided the necessary and heartbreaking voices to an event whose scale, and the hate behind it, is still beyond comprehension.
Upon the German diplomat's death, hell was unleashed in Jews throughout the Reich. Gilbert grimly excels here, as he tells in account after account the destruction of Jewish homes, businesses, and places of worship. In addition, many of the men were carted off to concentration camps. From the notes in the book, it appears Gilbert collected many of these accounts (a great deal of them from people were children or young adults at the time). In account after account, the same Nazi template presents itself with loud knocks on the door from a gang of SA thugs, and then destruction, beatings, and sometimes worse. There is brutal sameness to these attacks that strongly suggest planning and targeting. Gilbert never really dwells on this, maybe because the hard evidence has never been uncovered or maybe just because it's obvious. I don't know.
Anyway, this brutal account lasts for a little over half the book. What follows is the attempt by many of the Jews to get out of Germany. It was not such an easy thing, as the Nazis were hardly helpful, and other European countries argued over refugee quotas. This part of the book is also quite sad, but it is punctuated by some real heroes, such as Captain Frank Foley, the British Passport Control Officer in Berlin (also a spy), and Dr. Feng Shan Ho, the Chinese Consul General in Vienna. Both men would work night and day to help Jews to emigrate to both Britain and China. They saved thousands. And there were others (the "Righteous" as Gilbert calls them) that history has also forgotten. As the window to escape closes, the beginnings of the Final Solution start to reveal themselves.
Generally, my reading experience when it comes to "Kristallnacht" usually has involved a few pages in larger histories of the War and Nazi Germany. Gilbert has provided the necessary and heartbreaking voices to an event whose scale, and the hate behind it, is still beyond comprehension.
May 2, 2025
This book read like a documented list of all the terrible things that happened as a part of Kristallnacht in Germany and Austria. It also chronicled the reactions of countries around the world and their help (or lack thereof) in welcoming Jewish refugees and asylum seekers. An important book to read, and it certainly gave me a real appreciation for the horrors of what was truly the beginning of the Holocaust, but for most of the book it read as one anecdote after another, paragraph after paragraph, page after page.
October 25, 2017
As expected, this was a sobering but enlightening read. It was filled with first-person accounts of the night of Kristallnacht, and of the actions taken by the Nazi party, "regular" Germans, and other countries in the months and years following. Some of the information was new to me. The book contains maps showing the towns throughout Europe where synagogues were destroyed. That was heartbreaking to see.
This was a very well written book. Filled with very sad information. And also with several stories of heroism. So take heart in those.
This was a very well written book. Filled with very sad information. And also with several stories of heroism. So take heart in those.
October 13, 2009
Martin Gilbert collects and relates first hand experiences of Kristallnacht. At times, the book feels like a loosely connected series of mini-narratives, but it is so engrossing that this fact doesn't distance the reader. It should be noted that if Gilbert's footnotes are any indication some of the accounts came from letters that Gilbert recieved (most likely after solicting) from witnesses.
In addition to the first hand accounts, Gilbert goes into great deapth about the international reaction to Kristallnancht. At times the stories are despairly, others hopeful, and at least one, concerning the city of New York will promote a smile.
What comes across is the feeling of horror and helpless, of even anger on behalf of those mentioned in the book. Equally impactive are the maps in the back which show where the destruction took place. In many ways, these speak more than the actual narrative.
In addition to the first hand accounts, Gilbert goes into great deapth about the international reaction to Kristallnancht. At times the stories are despairly, others hopeful, and at least one, concerning the city of New York will promote a smile.
What comes across is the feeling of horror and helpless, of even anger on behalf of those mentioned in the book. Equally impactive are the maps in the back which show where the destruction took place. In many ways, these speak more than the actual narrative.
April 13, 2018
Martin Gilbert pulls no punches when he writes about the Holocaust. His anger and frustration are palpable. Kristallnacht, and the events leading up to it and after it, are analyzed. He uses first hand accounts from survivors and while their stories seem repetitive, that is the point: Never forget. He fully brings out the horror, fear, savagery and barbarity. He highlights the brave government/embassy members who illegally continued to issue emigration visas and citizens who risked their lives to shelter and hide Jews - making it clear that there were indeed "good Germans". Also laid bare are the heart-wrenching refugee quotas of the US, Britain and many other countries. Even though many were saved, these quotas and refusals of so many countries to admit German Jews (as of 9/1/39 were enemy aliens) were responsible for the deaths of thousands. It is hard to read and you get the full sense of the fear, racism and conundrums.
January 21, 2017
This book contains people's stories of Nov 10th,1938 when Nazi stormtroopers and Hitler youth smashed a trail through Jewish neighbourhoods destroying thousands of Jewish businesses and a thousand synagogues were destroyed.Thirty thousand Jews were sent to concentration camps. This book does not read as a story. It documents how it happened and how people felt as told to Mr Gilbert I think I found the recounting of a Nazi squad busting into a Jewish home and giving them an hour to vacate with what they could carry while a German citizen walked in and took possession. The Holocaust was about looting and stealing and as much about greed as hatred.
August 4, 2015
This is quite an in-depth look at Kristallnacht and the immediate aftermath, also including basic events/stats that came both before and after. Much of the information comes from survivors, many of whom sent letters or unpublished memoirs to the author, as well as other eyewitnesses including journalists and government officials based in Germany/Austria at the time of the event. The beginning of the book is broken up into different cities/towns in Germany and the remembrances of the eyewitnesses. After the event, the author continues with the same people and what happened to them, trials that they went through trying to get out of German occupied land and the almost insurmountable blockades that the Nazis put up to make it difficult for people to leave. I found all of the journalists and government officials bits of information fascinating and disturbing in that the other countries just seemed to be like ostriches with their heads in the sand, truly believing that Germany was upholding the Versailles treaty along with more recent agreements, even with evidence from their own people that things were getting worse. The author also talks of some of the brave people that stood up and helped, from the Catholic priest in Munich that gave the Rabbi a truck to cart away as much as possible from the synagogue before it was burned, the government officials who did as much as they could to get people out of the country, falsifying visas, coming up with inventive ways to get whole families out all the while breaking their own countries edicts while doing so, to the German woman who gave a Jewish woman her id. The book includes maps of all the towns where synagogues were burned as well as maps of both escape routes and deportation routes that some of the eyewitnesses took. A very good book.
December 11, 2008
This guy is a serious nerd :) I found myself engrossed, even though the text double backs on itself many times. This is a huge compilation of first hand accounts of the Kristalnacht. It deals with the emigration, the orphans, and, of course, the destruction of that night in particular. I learned so much, and found myself horrified. Even the moments where he talks about the heroes who tried to help escaping Jews, I was horrified that they were so alone in their efforts and often penalized for acting out of basic human morality.
August 5, 2023
This scholarly, yet deeply moving work is based on numerous, detailed, first hand accounts of the orchestrated herd mentality, the resultant vandalism and thefts that were perpetrated all over Germany and Austria on Kristallnacht. This event set the scene for the descent into hell, the mass exclusion and extermination of Jews, that ensued over the subsequent 7 years. Vivid, shocking and disturbing.
October 12, 2019
This was a heartbreaking and salutary book to read. Last year it was the 80th anniversary of Kristellnacht or the Night of Broken Glass.
This was the night of 10 November 1938 when there was a well orchestrated and determined attack on Germany’s Jewish population. 1000 synagogues were burned and many subsequently demolished, 91 Jews were murdered according to official figures of the time and houses ransacked. Businesses were looted and smashed up or transferred to new owners on the spot. 30.000 Jewish men were rounded up and deported to concentration camps. A whole culture and race was under attack.
It was in response to the shooting of a German diplomat by a young Jew, Herschel Grynszpa, who walked into the German Embassy and shot a diplomat, Von Rath, who later died. He had been inspired to commit this act by the fate of his own family who had been part of the expulsion of 12,000 Jews to Poland. 4000 were accepted by the authorities but the rest, destitute and penniless,
had to wait without food or money in fields and stables.
The first hand accounts give the horrible events an immediacy as children and young people describe seeing burning synagogues, sacred Torah scrolls being tossed in rivers, mobs barging in to destroy their homes or Nazis coming to take away male family members. They were either never seen again or returned changed, damaged. It is not known how many committed suicide. The acts of vicious cruelty and spite by mobs who knew they could get away with it made very disturbing reading.
The world’s newspapers reported the unfolding events in mounting horror as a civilised society descended into barbarism and Germany fell into chaos. One newspaper spoke of ‘the racial hatred and hysteria that seemed to have taken complete control of otherwise decent people.’
Kristellnacht paved the way for the Final Solution, the effective and efficient Nazi killing machine that reigned supreme in concentration camps. It also demonstrated how to destroy a race by destroying its culture. Entire Jewish communities were destroyed, some of which dated back centuries and this was not lost on IS or Daesh who destroyed entire cultural sites and antiquities.
Gilbert knowledgeably describes the chaos as Jews tried to escape from Germany to anywhere that would accept them. Germany wanted to purge itself of them and ‘Time to leave’ was the often quoted phrase. Some countries took many, some took none. The list of countries that refused to accept them and their reasons for doing so made for chilling reading.
The Kindertransports of children took many. Sir Nicholas Winton saved many and Captain Foley in Berlin and Dr Feng Shan Ho in Vienna undoubtedly saved thousands by issuing many visas. And some ordinary Germans stood against the tide and did what they could.
But there was to be no escape for many as borders were sealed at the outbreak of war and as Germany occupied more and more countries. It was very poignant to read the ages of some of the 57 children in a deportation from Leipzig; 2 years, 7 months, 2 months. Not a single Jew was to be left alive.
For those who escaped, there was the knowledge that often, they were the sole survivor of their families. One child recalled being forbidden to wave goodbye to his parents from a train as they stood on the station platform. He never saw them again.
This is a well written well researched book but as Holocaust survivors begin to die it must be kept alive in peoples minds.
Centuries of culture and communities vanished with the Final Solution. In Rodinsky’s Room by Rachel Rubinstein and Iain Sinclair, she speaks of visiting Poland and finding abandoned, overgrown Jewish cemeteries with no Jews living in the vicinity. The synagogues either gone or abandoned. It’s as if they never existed.
This should be a reminder to ensure that it can never happen again. But events in Kosovo and Rwanda have proved that the inhumanity to man never lies dormant.
This was the night of 10 November 1938 when there was a well orchestrated and determined attack on Germany’s Jewish population. 1000 synagogues were burned and many subsequently demolished, 91 Jews were murdered according to official figures of the time and houses ransacked. Businesses were looted and smashed up or transferred to new owners on the spot. 30.000 Jewish men were rounded up and deported to concentration camps. A whole culture and race was under attack.
It was in response to the shooting of a German diplomat by a young Jew, Herschel Grynszpa, who walked into the German Embassy and shot a diplomat, Von Rath, who later died. He had been inspired to commit this act by the fate of his own family who had been part of the expulsion of 12,000 Jews to Poland. 4000 were accepted by the authorities but the rest, destitute and penniless,
had to wait without food or money in fields and stables.
The first hand accounts give the horrible events an immediacy as children and young people describe seeing burning synagogues, sacred Torah scrolls being tossed in rivers, mobs barging in to destroy their homes or Nazis coming to take away male family members. They were either never seen again or returned changed, damaged. It is not known how many committed suicide. The acts of vicious cruelty and spite by mobs who knew they could get away with it made very disturbing reading.
The world’s newspapers reported the unfolding events in mounting horror as a civilised society descended into barbarism and Germany fell into chaos. One newspaper spoke of ‘the racial hatred and hysteria that seemed to have taken complete control of otherwise decent people.’
Kristellnacht paved the way for the Final Solution, the effective and efficient Nazi killing machine that reigned supreme in concentration camps. It also demonstrated how to destroy a race by destroying its culture. Entire Jewish communities were destroyed, some of which dated back centuries and this was not lost on IS or Daesh who destroyed entire cultural sites and antiquities.
Gilbert knowledgeably describes the chaos as Jews tried to escape from Germany to anywhere that would accept them. Germany wanted to purge itself of them and ‘Time to leave’ was the often quoted phrase. Some countries took many, some took none. The list of countries that refused to accept them and their reasons for doing so made for chilling reading.
The Kindertransports of children took many. Sir Nicholas Winton saved many and Captain Foley in Berlin and Dr Feng Shan Ho in Vienna undoubtedly saved thousands by issuing many visas. And some ordinary Germans stood against the tide and did what they could.
But there was to be no escape for many as borders were sealed at the outbreak of war and as Germany occupied more and more countries. It was very poignant to read the ages of some of the 57 children in a deportation from Leipzig; 2 years, 7 months, 2 months. Not a single Jew was to be left alive.
For those who escaped, there was the knowledge that often, they were the sole survivor of their families. One child recalled being forbidden to wave goodbye to his parents from a train as they stood on the station platform. He never saw them again.
This is a well written well researched book but as Holocaust survivors begin to die it must be kept alive in peoples minds.
Centuries of culture and communities vanished with the Final Solution. In Rodinsky’s Room by Rachel Rubinstein and Iain Sinclair, she speaks of visiting Poland and finding abandoned, overgrown Jewish cemeteries with no Jews living in the vicinity. The synagogues either gone or abandoned. It’s as if they never existed.
This should be a reminder to ensure that it can never happen again. But events in Kosovo and Rwanda have proved that the inhumanity to man never lies dormant.
May 10, 2019
Writing history as a snapshot of time is a risky venture. While a close examination of an event provides a sense of precision, broader implications are too often omitted. This is the case with Martin Gilbert's "Kristallnacht". It's an example of fine journalism underpinned by good research and scholarly presentation. Hardly an entertaining evening's read, this book chronicles how guided prejudice led to an orgy of violence and destruction against Germany's Jews. Stores were smashed and looted, synagogues burned and demolished, homes invaded and people terrorised during a two-day expression of hatred. The wreckage littering the streets, particularly the shop windows, gave the episode its name - and this book's title. It is a glimpse into the past we all must see and endure.
Gilbert gathered the remembrances of people or their offspring who survived the onslaught. There are letters, journals and interviews with the author, bringing a disturbing intimacy to this account. That there were survivors to make these records seems surprising after a half-century of condemnation by the victorious Powers. Yet, Kristallnacht itself wasn't an orgy of killing. Less than a hundred died of beatings or unknown causes, although there were many suicides. Jews were seized and incarcerated, even in the notorious concentration camps, but most were later released. Pre-war Germany was more interested in ridding itself of its Jews by exile and emigration was encouraged. "Time to leave" became a byword among Germany's Jews after Kristallnacht, which was part of its purpose, according to Gilbert. Emigration, however, was more than packing up and leaving. There had to be places to go, and not all nations opened their borders to Jews fleeing manifest hatred.
Although the historian notes how the destruction was orchestrated by Nazi officials and that Brownshirts and the Hitler Youth were present, the attackers were either joined or cheered on by a large, although not universal, proportion of the general population. The opportunity to obtain goods, stores, homes and money was seized by many Germans. Firms were closed, to open "under new management" by the stroke of a pen. Homes gained new owners as Jews emigrated, were shoved into ghettos or concentration camps or, later, killed. There were few enough to defend them and Gilbert avoids explaining whether lawyers helped or hindered the processes. Given the absolute powers the Nazi regime granted itself, the only good lawyer was one who acceded to the process. Another void in this book is the lack of accounts from smaller towns. Gilbert provides a series of maps showing how many towns experienced Kristallnacht's violence. Yet, the text focusses on Vienna, Frankfurt-am-Main, Hamburg and other large cities. How big did a town have to be to host a synagogue? How many small-town neighbours assisted in its destruction? We aren't given this information.
If history has "watersheds", Kristallnacht serves as a type specimen. Only the French massacre of St Bartholomew's Night stands as a peer. In the same way that a cabal of French Catholics plotted to rid their country of its Protestant minority, so too, did Nazi thugs await a trigger to launch their onslaught. It came with the murder of a German diplomat in Paris, but the event hardly matches the scope of the response. Clearly, "everyday" Germans participated in the destruction, but Gilbert ties the causes solely to Nazi policy. That hardly seems sustainable, but worse, it denies the possibility of a reprise in different nations under different leaders. If this book could teach us anything, it's that being on guard against those promoting hate is an endless task. Read this book for what happened, but go elsewhere to learn why it did
Gilbert gathered the remembrances of people or their offspring who survived the onslaught. There are letters, journals and interviews with the author, bringing a disturbing intimacy to this account. That there were survivors to make these records seems surprising after a half-century of condemnation by the victorious Powers. Yet, Kristallnacht itself wasn't an orgy of killing. Less than a hundred died of beatings or unknown causes, although there were many suicides. Jews were seized and incarcerated, even in the notorious concentration camps, but most were later released. Pre-war Germany was more interested in ridding itself of its Jews by exile and emigration was encouraged. "Time to leave" became a byword among Germany's Jews after Kristallnacht, which was part of its purpose, according to Gilbert. Emigration, however, was more than packing up and leaving. There had to be places to go, and not all nations opened their borders to Jews fleeing manifest hatred.
Although the historian notes how the destruction was orchestrated by Nazi officials and that Brownshirts and the Hitler Youth were present, the attackers were either joined or cheered on by a large, although not universal, proportion of the general population. The opportunity to obtain goods, stores, homes and money was seized by many Germans. Firms were closed, to open "under new management" by the stroke of a pen. Homes gained new owners as Jews emigrated, were shoved into ghettos or concentration camps or, later, killed. There were few enough to defend them and Gilbert avoids explaining whether lawyers helped or hindered the processes. Given the absolute powers the Nazi regime granted itself, the only good lawyer was one who acceded to the process. Another void in this book is the lack of accounts from smaller towns. Gilbert provides a series of maps showing how many towns experienced Kristallnacht's violence. Yet, the text focusses on Vienna, Frankfurt-am-Main, Hamburg and other large cities. How big did a town have to be to host a synagogue? How many small-town neighbours assisted in its destruction? We aren't given this information.
If history has "watersheds", Kristallnacht serves as a type specimen. Only the French massacre of St Bartholomew's Night stands as a peer. In the same way that a cabal of French Catholics plotted to rid their country of its Protestant minority, so too, did Nazi thugs await a trigger to launch their onslaught. It came with the murder of a German diplomat in Paris, but the event hardly matches the scope of the response. Clearly, "everyday" Germans participated in the destruction, but Gilbert ties the causes solely to Nazi policy. That hardly seems sustainable, but worse, it denies the possibility of a reprise in different nations under different leaders. If this book could teach us anything, it's that being on guard against those promoting hate is an endless task. Read this book for what happened, but go elsewhere to learn why it did
April 14, 2022
Six million people died as a direct result of the Nazi Final Solution. They died because they were Jewish and for no other reason. Status, accomplishment, and religious practice did not matter. They were German, Austrian, Polish, Russian, French, Dutch, Belgian, and others. This number does not include those killed because the Nazis thought them somehow inferior or the soldiers who died in the World War that began when Germany invaded Poland. We tend to think of the whole history of the Second World War and often ignore its component parts. The great contribution of Martin Gilbert's book is that it shows us what led up to Kristallnacht in November of 1938 and the months before the invasion of Poland in September 1939.
Official persecution of the Jews began shortly after Hitler took power in Germany. Laws were passed placing increasing restrictions on Jewish activity in commerce and social life. In the beginning, at least, it seemed that the objective was to force Jews in Germany to leave. Over time, this changed to the radical extermination of all the Jews in Europe. Informed by their diplomats in Berlin, some nations made efforts to welcome Jewish emigrants. Others did not. Those countries which welcomed Jewish refugees only welcomed a limited number, far smaller than the need. Some countries like France, Holland and Belgium accepted immigrants only to have them rounded up when they themselves fell to Hitler's war machine.
Kristallnacht, named for the broken glass of Jewish shop windows, was a paroxysm of destruction and rage after the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris. Jewish shops were broken into and looted; synagogues were burned down; houses were ransacked; people were beaten; men were arrested; all while the police turned their backs and mobs were directed by Nazi troopers. More than a thousand synagogues were destroyed along with countless shops and homes. All of this destruction in a twenty-four hour period, but the fire had been stoked for years before.
Martin Gilbert tells the story by making it real by recounting the experiences of survivors and descendants He writes of the occasional heroes who risked their lives to save others; the diplomats who ignored their governments' instructions and issued visas to allow people to escape and the ordinary people who did their best to hide Jewish neighbours from the Gestapo.
The book is a clear evocation of a dark time, a time we cannot afford to forget.
Official persecution of the Jews began shortly after Hitler took power in Germany. Laws were passed placing increasing restrictions on Jewish activity in commerce and social life. In the beginning, at least, it seemed that the objective was to force Jews in Germany to leave. Over time, this changed to the radical extermination of all the Jews in Europe. Informed by their diplomats in Berlin, some nations made efforts to welcome Jewish emigrants. Others did not. Those countries which welcomed Jewish refugees only welcomed a limited number, far smaller than the need. Some countries like France, Holland and Belgium accepted immigrants only to have them rounded up when they themselves fell to Hitler's war machine.
Kristallnacht, named for the broken glass of Jewish shop windows, was a paroxysm of destruction and rage after the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris. Jewish shops were broken into and looted; synagogues were burned down; houses were ransacked; people were beaten; men were arrested; all while the police turned their backs and mobs were directed by Nazi troopers. More than a thousand synagogues were destroyed along with countless shops and homes. All of this destruction in a twenty-four hour period, but the fire had been stoked for years before.
Martin Gilbert tells the story by making it real by recounting the experiences of survivors and descendants He writes of the occasional heroes who risked their lives to save others; the diplomats who ignored their governments' instructions and issued visas to allow people to escape and the ordinary people who did their best to hide Jewish neighbours from the Gestapo.
The book is a clear evocation of a dark time, a time we cannot afford to forget.
February 15, 2023
Summary:
A German diplomat was shot by a Jew in early November 1938. By the next day an uprising of intense anger and hatred and violent retaliation against the Jews began. Kristallnacht-the Night of Broken Glass, November 10, 1938, was a night of fiery destruction. Jewish businesses and synagogues and homes were destroyed. Jewish people were rounded up and abused and murdered. This night, set the tone of continued violent antisemitism that lasted until the end of World War II.
The book, Kristallnacht, allows those who were eyewitnesses share their story with brief writing from Martin Gilbert in order to introduce the people or share further background history.
My Thoughts:
I have read many books on the Holocaust. This is the first book I’ve read that is a complete Kristallnacht history.
Several reasons why I believe this is a good to very good rating book:
Martin Gilbert gave the eyewitness accounts the largest voice in the book. His narration is to help outline, introduce, and give background history.
I did not know there were several countries who gave refuge to Jews. These countries are India, Turkey, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil (only took Catholics who were from Jewish ancestry), Cyprus, Kenya, Trinidad, and Malta. Shanghai, China took the most Jewish refugees. All of the countries had strong limits of how many and who they took. This reason is noted for me because it is something I learned new in the book.
I have been impacted, but do not understand, the violence and murder-the extent to what the Nazis did to another people group.
The Kristallnacht story is written chronologically. It includes what was going on in other areas of Germany, other bordering countries.
Twenty-four black and white maps are included in the back of the book.
Source: Library.
A German diplomat was shot by a Jew in early November 1938. By the next day an uprising of intense anger and hatred and violent retaliation against the Jews began. Kristallnacht-the Night of Broken Glass, November 10, 1938, was a night of fiery destruction. Jewish businesses and synagogues and homes were destroyed. Jewish people were rounded up and abused and murdered. This night, set the tone of continued violent antisemitism that lasted until the end of World War II.
The book, Kristallnacht, allows those who were eyewitnesses share their story with brief writing from Martin Gilbert in order to introduce the people or share further background history.
My Thoughts:
I have read many books on the Holocaust. This is the first book I’ve read that is a complete Kristallnacht history.
Several reasons why I believe this is a good to very good rating book:
Martin Gilbert gave the eyewitness accounts the largest voice in the book. His narration is to help outline, introduce, and give background history.
I did not know there were several countries who gave refuge to Jews. These countries are India, Turkey, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil (only took Catholics who were from Jewish ancestry), Cyprus, Kenya, Trinidad, and Malta. Shanghai, China took the most Jewish refugees. All of the countries had strong limits of how many and who they took. This reason is noted for me because it is something I learned new in the book.
I have been impacted, but do not understand, the violence and murder-the extent to what the Nazis did to another people group.
The Kristallnacht story is written chronologically. It includes what was going on in other areas of Germany, other bordering countries.
Twenty-four black and white maps are included in the back of the book.
Source: Library.
October 11, 2018
As we are approaching the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass) it seemed appropriate to re-read this, although the detailed eye witness accounts Martin Gilbert has compiled make for a harrowing read. In short Herschel Grynszpan, a seventeen-year-old German-born Polish Jew living in Paris, received a letter from his sister who was one of 12,000 Jews expelled from Germany on 18 October 1938. Like many of the expellees, Grynszpan’s sister was denied entry to Poland and along with their parents was trapped in a limbo of homelessness and starvation. Receiving the letter Grynszpan purchased a revolver, went to the German Embassy intending to shoot the German Ambassador, but instead shot and wounded the Third Secretary, Ernst von Rath. When von Rath subsequently died of his wounds, the National Socialists used this as the trigger to launch a pogrom of violence overnight on 9th’/10th November aimed at Jews, their Synagogues, businesses and homes.
One interesting point to note is that the world knew about these attacks; “… there were several hundred foreign journalists in Germany … who reported freely on what they saw and heard. This was not wartime.” Just five weeks earlier Neville Chamberlain had negotiated ‘peace in our time’ and agreed to Germany annexing the Sudetenland. Twenty years on from the 1918 Armistice, Kristallnacht must have been the point where many ordinary people, including my parents, realised that another war with Germany was inevitable.
However depressing this is as an overall read, there is a positive to take from this. The efforts and bravery of individuals like the British Passport Officer Captain Frank Foley, the Swiss Border Policeman Paul Gruninger and the Portuguese Counsel General Dr Aristides de Sousa Mendes in withstanding pressure and issuing visas allowing Jews to leave Germany pre and post Kristallnacht shines through.
One interesting point to note is that the world knew about these attacks; “… there were several hundred foreign journalists in Germany … who reported freely on what they saw and heard. This was not wartime.” Just five weeks earlier Neville Chamberlain had negotiated ‘peace in our time’ and agreed to Germany annexing the Sudetenland. Twenty years on from the 1918 Armistice, Kristallnacht must have been the point where many ordinary people, including my parents, realised that another war with Germany was inevitable.
However depressing this is as an overall read, there is a positive to take from this. The efforts and bravery of individuals like the British Passport Officer Captain Frank Foley, the Swiss Border Policeman Paul Gruninger and the Portuguese Counsel General Dr Aristides de Sousa Mendes in withstanding pressure and issuing visas allowing Jews to leave Germany pre and post Kristallnacht shines through.
August 16, 2017
From Chapters 1 was an Intro of some the horror that took place during the event. Then from chapters 2 to 4 were eye witnesses with 1st person point of view of reflection on that persons' experience. Such as the horrible events that took place at their places of worship, their home, and for some their stores/businesses. In chapter 5, there is a prelude to the events that took place. Then it's finished off with Escape and Rescue. As well as the "Last Steps to Destruction". This is different culturally in America because in America we haven't had a pogrom on a specific group that led to something as bad as the holocaust. We've also never had a dictatorship. I think Martin Gilbert's purpose was view the impact Kristallnacht had on the history of the world as a historian- "Martin Gilbert, one of the leading historians of our time, examines Kristallnacht-the Night of the Broken Glass-and describes how the rest of the world reacted in its awake". As this is a reflection, it is hard to point out an actual theme. I would recommend this book as there are many primary sources for many first hand facts. I well written book reflecting a sad time that is now a big part of the worlds history.
September 20, 2018
Martin Gilbert holds nothing back when he writes about the Holocaust. His anger and frustration are palpable. Kristallnacht, and the events leading up to it and after it, are carefully analyzed. He uses first hand accounts from survivors which all support the story with reinforcement of events. He vividly brings out the horror, fear, savagery and barbarity. He highlights the brave embassy members who illegally continued to issue emigration visas and citizens who risked their lives to shelter and hide Jews - making it clear that not all Germans were bad. Also laid bare are the heart-wrenching refugee quotes of the US, Britain and many other countries. Even though many were saved, these quotas and refusals of so many countries to admit German Jews were responsible for the deaths of thousands. It is hard to read and you get the full sense of the fear, racism and conundrums. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a sort of blunt history of the holocaust or historical tragedy.
November 16, 2023
A methodical and analytical view of the events of Kristallnacht and the events that followed (the Night of Broken glass). The book is a clear read although dry initially as Gilbert lists (documents) the families, businesses and synagogues systematically destroyed across Germany during that infamous night. The book then speeds up as it then touches upon the brave people who rescued Jewish children via the kinder transports and other refugee escape routes. It then ends with the forced relocation movement to the concentration camps for those unfortunate Jewish people who could not get visas to escape this revolting regime. A very moving account of how man's inhumanity to his fellow beings was orchestrated and executed almost with glee and enthusiasm by the Nazi regime. Recommended as a must read for all. With the recent events in Israel and Gaza. This must never happen again.
October 28, 2025
Martin Gilbert is a meticulous researcher and is able to convey history in a factual yet compelling manner. I read his 1000+ page “History of WWII” and this book is sort of the prequel to it. My one criticism, as others have mentioned, is that there’s virtually no detail on how such an incredibly destructive event was coordinated across hundreds of sites at precisely the same date and time. There were no public announcements, drills or dress rehearsals, yet every single city, town and village in Germany and annexed Austria had its own individual Kristallnacht.
Incredibly sad event, yet it was just the beginning of years of torment, persecution and death of the European Jewish community in the 1930’s through the war years.
Incredibly sad event, yet it was just the beginning of years of torment, persecution and death of the European Jewish community in the 1930’s through the war years.
December 18, 2024
It took me several months to read this book and I almost quit several times. Not because the book is not well written but entirely the opposite. The depth of accuracy and detail that describes the most horrific and inhumane acts that can be done were hard to stomach. However, I persevered simply because I felt it was important to respect the lives of the hundreds of thousand of Jews who were exterminated at the hands of the Nazis. The seeds of this unspeakable evil lay within every human heart. It is important that we must understand this darkness in ourselves and appeal to the Light. To forget our dark human history is to destine us to repeat it as world events bears witness.
July 30, 2025
What makes a normal human being turn on its neighbours with ferocity and hatred? While Kristallnacht doesn’t answer this question, the eyewitness accounts are testament that it happened, frequently and across a whole country. This book lists in detail those that chose to help and the countries that could have done more to save people from the slaughter to come, the scale of which no one could have predicted. Despite the best efforts to wipe out witnesses to this brutality, enough memories and evidence remain that I hope, but doubt, will prevent a recurrence.
July 10, 2022
A need to read. In 1939 the Germans were ready to commit crimes again their own German Jews. The destruction of Jewish stores, their homes and many Jewish lives were lost. Even Jewish Germans who were veterans and decorated by their citizens. The story is told by many survivors, that were children and teenagers. The horror, the sadness and the evil are difficult to read about but stand as witnesses to one of the atrocities of WW11. May we never forget
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June 30, 2022Non me la sento di dare una valutazione a un libro importante come questo, pieno di Voci assordanti, che si raccontano attraverso la penna di Gilbert.
Posso solo dire che l'ho amato, tantissimo. E quanto sono importanti testimonianze come queste, per ricordare e soprattutto per non silenziare mai quelle Voci.
Meraviglioso, profondamente toccante ed emozionante.
Leggetelo.
Posso solo dire che l'ho amato, tantissimo. E quanto sono importanti testimonianze come queste, per ricordare e soprattutto per non silenziare mai quelle Voci.
Meraviglioso, profondamente toccante ed emozionante.
Leggetelo.
February 8, 2024
While this book is full of fact and numbers the book is difficult to put down. The evil that is documented is hard to comprehend and provided this reader a reminder that acceptance of small changes to social norms and boundaries can lead to greater and greater control and manipulation. Where is change good and where does change lead to evil?
April 16, 2020
In my opinion this was excellent history. The many, many references to primary sources were extensively footnoted, there was a comprehensive index and a reasonably bibliography. The subject matter was sobering and thought-provoking. Literally, I couldn't stop reading until I got to the end.
March 3, 2023
This was a pretty good book that covered a broad overview of the terror of Kristallnacht and the violence that ensued throughout Nazi-controlled lands. It also includes a lot of maps for people who like to learn visually.
October 14, 2020
Sad but important book to read so we never repeat this tragedy.
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