More Than Broken Glass: Memories of Kristallnacht

<v Narrator 1>Major funding for this program was provided by the Ivan L. <v Narrator 1>Tillem Foundation. <v Woman 1>Suddenly I realized that this light which I was seeing was fire inside the <v Woman 1>synagogue and just firemen was apparently protecting the other building. <v Woman 2>All of a sudden he turns around ?inaudible? I thought and now he's <v Woman 2>shooting me. Now I am finished. <v Woman 3>And I do remember faintly, he he tried to muster <v Woman 3>a faint smile and waved as if to say <v Woman 3>things will be all right. That was the last time that I ever saw my father. <v Man 1>The home and the synagogue, the two centers of our life <v Man 1>in Mannheim. <v Man 1>Being uh one burning the other one rancid where're we gonna go. <v Man 1>What what am I gonna do? What's gonna happen to me?

<v Man 1>[music plays] <v Narrator 2>Kristallnacht or Crystal Night, the Night of Broken Glass <v Narrator 2>was a brief period in November 1938 of unprecedented violence against <v Narrator 2>the Jews of the Third Reich. <v Narrator 2>Joseph Goebbels, the minister of propaganda who instigated the operation, claimed <v Narrator 2>it was a spontaneous outburst of the people's rage.

<v Narrator 2>It was an unforeseen but loosely organized step in the Nazi policy <v Narrator 2>to remove Jews from German life. [ominous music] <v Paula Klein>[piano music] We had a piano zu h- uh home and I <v Paula Klein>went for piano lessons to Kitzingen. This uh <v Paula Klein>little city near a half an hour from where I was born, <v Paula Klein>and I went every week for piano lessons and I played <v Paula Klein>good piano. <v Rabbi Karl Richter>In Germany, the higher education was separated between boys <v Rabbi Karl Richter>and girls. I went to a boys school. <v Rabbi Karl Richter>The girls had their own schools and the train never met. <v Rabbi Karl Richter>Didn't know where the girl was until I got in from high school. <v Rabbi Karl Richter>[laughs] <v Narrator 2>In the 20s, German Jews considered themselves more German than the Germans. <v Narrator 2>They lived and worked at every level of society.

<v Dr. Fred Grubel>For three years, I was in uh very interesting law office, law <v Dr. Fred Grubel>office of the president of the German Bar Association. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>And I worked also in the central office of the Bar Association. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>Everything looked wonderful. <v Rabbi Karl Richter>In those days in the late 19 hundred 20s, I graduated in <v Rabbi Karl Richter>1928. There was very little anti-semitism uh we lived like <v Rabbi Karl Richter>uh everybody else. <v Raul Hilberg>They did feel accepted and they thought of themselves <v Raul Hilberg>as Germans. <v Raul Hilberg>Uh the major validation for that thought was their participation <v Raul Hilberg>in the First World War. <v Raul Hilberg>In the course of which uh, the Jewish community of Germany, numbering a <v Raul Hilberg>little over 600,000, lost 12000 men killed in <v Raul Hilberg>action. <v Raul Hilberg>Uh that's a very important argument in Germany for equality. <v Ernest Michel>I remember visits to my grandfather's home in the northern part of Germany.

<v Ernest Michel>Uh he was a soldier in World War One. <v Ernest Michel>I remember picture of him hanging on the in the living room on a horse. <v Ernest Michel>He was a member of the German cavalry and very proud having received the <v Ernest Michel>Iron Cross. <v Paula Klein>So uh when I got married, my father said that's <v Paula Klein>?all we have?. I wouldn't let you. <v Paula Klein>I buy you a new one. We bought a new piano ?inaudible?. <v Paula Klein>And this was standing in my living room. <v Paula Klein>All new furniture. <v Paula Klein>Beautiful, beautiful. <v Frederick Oechsner>Berlin at that time was certainly one of the most <v Frederick Oechsner>exciting cities in the world, if not the most exciting. <v Frederick Oechsner>In every respect, it was probably one of the most

<v Frederick Oechsner>bitter sweet towns that you could think of. <v Frederick Oechsner>I say bitter and I will return to this uh with reference to the <v Frederick Oechsner>mood of the people, sweet in terms of creativity <v Frederick Oechsner>and the wonderful things that people were doing in the arts and the sciences. <v Frederick Oechsner>It really masked by the terrible underlay of <v Frederick Oechsner>uh d- depression and joblessness and uh absolute hopelessness, <v Frederick Oechsner>mostly as a result of the of the Treaty of Versailles, which imposed <v Frederick Oechsner>on Germany and this had been just a a t- decade before uh <v Frederick Oechsner>economic hardships, which are difficult to measure. <v Narrator 2>Germany was left bankrupt by the Treaty of Versailles. <v Narrator 2>The world leaders, while stripping Germany of its assets in land, had also redrawn the <v Narrator 2>map of Europe.

<v Jack Goldman>Even though I was born in Germany, my parents had come, especially my father <v Jack Goldman>had come from a part of of uh Europe, that before the <v Jack Goldman>war was Austria and with the war, the family moved <v Jack Goldman>to Western Germany. <v Jack Goldman>And when the end of World War One came about, <v Jack Goldman>that portion became uh Poland. <v Jack Goldman>So he had to have a Polish passport and we had to have a Polish passport. <v Frederick Oechsner>As far as the political situation is concerned. <v Frederick Oechsner>Uh there were 37 different political parties <v Frederick Oechsner>and they were knifing one another and and uh <v Frederick Oechsner>b- betraying one another and deceiving one another for advantage <v Frederick Oechsner>and the Reichstag, which was the parliament. <v Frederick Oechsner>And uh the uh top threat at that time <v Frederick Oechsner>and certainly recognized as such was the National Socialist <v Frederick Oechsner>German Worker's Party or Nazi Party under

<v Frederick Oechsner>Adolf Hitler. <v Raul Hilberg>Indeed, when the clouds of Nazism began to gather towards <v Raul Hilberg>the end of 1932, the Jewish community made an attempt <v Raul Hilberg>to list each soldier who was Jewish, who was killed <v Raul Hilberg>separately and make a book out of it. <v Raul Hilberg>Uh this book uh was presented to Germany's president, Field Marshal <v Raul Hilberg>von Hindenberg on his 85th birthday at the end of <v Raul Hilberg>1932. Now, that was uh the mentality of the German Jews. <v Siegfried Tischauer>My father was in German army. He died for the Germany in the first war. <v Siegfried Tischauer>He is buried in the German military cemetery in France. <v Siegfried Tischauer>My grandfather were in the German army. <v Siegfried Tischauer>It was my country, I was born there. <v Raul Hilberg>[ominous music] When Adolf Hitler came to power on January 30, 1933,

<v Raul Hilberg>uh the situation began to change fairly radically. <v Raul Hilberg>For one thing, it was quite evident during the first few months <v Raul Hilberg>of this new regime uh that the status of equality had ended. <v Raul Hilberg>Now the only question for the Jewish community was whether they could survive <v Raul Hilberg>economically as second class citizens. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>Uh they couldn't wait until the next morning. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>At 5:00 in the afternoon, a special messenger came to my home with a letter <v Dr. Fred Grubel>that since the Reverend Dr. Fred Gruber, <v Dr. Fred Grubel>according to his own indication, is of Jewish <v Dr. Fred Grubel>descent, he is immediately discharged from the judicial service, <v Dr. Fred Grubel>period. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>Next morning, I went back to court to get my books and so on, and I never will forget <v Dr. Fred Grubel>uh how crazy one was at that time. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>Uh a uh Gentile colleague of mine, a lady, was

<v Dr. Fred Grubel>quite upset and said this and what are you doing now? <v Dr. Fred Grubel>And er this terrible what happened since on. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>And I never will forget the crazy answer that I gave uh said colleague. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>Uh, don't worry. It happens to us every few hundred years, and we are still in this <v Dr. Fred Grubel>world. I think she thought me highly crazy. <v Karl Schleunes>The Nazis had promised that they would undo at the very minimum <v Karl Schleunes>their solution to the Jewish problem, as they called it, was to undo <v Karl Schleunes>that process of assimilation that began in the late <v Karl Schleunes>18th and early 19th century. <v Karl Schleunes>In other words, to once again separate Jews from Germans. <v Alfons Heck>It also had very personal implications because my kindergarten friend <v Alfons Heck>Heintz ?Erman? was Jewish and he was moved from <v Alfons Heck>our elementary school 6 weeks after we started school. <v Alfons Heck>I knew he was Jewish. In fact, I had gone to the synagogue with

<v Alfons Heck>him once for his parents' wedding. <v Alfons Heck>I spend a lot of time in their home. <v Alfons Heck>And you know, I was ?canceling? it didn't make any difference to us. <v Alfons Heck>Merely was a a concept that we didn't understand. <v Raul Hilberg>By and large, the first measures of what I would call ghettoisation <v Raul Hilberg>began. This is not a visible ghetto, but it did <v Raul Hilberg>consist of such measures at first as prohibition of <v Raul Hilberg>intermarriages, and later on the necessity to carry out around <v Raul Hilberg>the card with various markings on it. <v Raul Hilberg>Uh for example, Jews had to have the middle name for men, Israel, and for <v Raul Hilberg>women, Sara. <v Raul Hilberg>Uh their passports were marked with a J. <v Raul Hilberg>And there were still other ways of identifying Jews. <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>Was an old Jewish custom that among the Orthodox on the <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>Sabbath, every Jew, uh every male Jew would wear a top hat ?inaudible?. <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>And of course, when that was done, when the Nazis were in power, that was simply a signal

<v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>for them to be beaten up and to be um um <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>persecuted. So what was done, I have vivid memories of that. <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>In the synagogue itself, the shul, which is the name for synagogue, they built <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>like wooden uh cubicles where every male Jew was able <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>to store his ?inaudible? his top hat. <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>And therefore we uh wore regular clothing to the synagogue. <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>But once in the synagogue, the men would then go to the cubicle, take out the top hat <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>and wear the top hat only for services, at the end of services, they'd put it back into <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>the cubicle. <v Raul Hilberg>Already in 1933, with some exceptions, those in public service which included <v Raul Hilberg>teachers, were to be dismissed. <v Peter Gay>The head of the Gymnasium was obviously an OK figure for the new regime. <v Peter Gay>Called up my father and asked him to come and see him. <v Peter Gay>Uh which was a rather astonishing thing. <v Peter Gay>I was doing well and he didn't know what the problem was. <v Peter Gay>Well, it wasn't a problem. There was an argument that he was going to give my father and <v Peter Gay>did that uh since I was a good student, I should go the classical route and learn

<v Peter Gay>Latin. Uh but anyway, I tell the story only to say that this was the atmosphere <v Peter Gay>even in 1935. Even in a completely, you know, <v Peter Gay>uh aryanized school, no Jewish teachers and uh and so on. <v Peter Gay>So that uh even the head of the school caring about which branch I would take, <v Peter Gay>assuming that I had some sort of future, uh it's characteristic of the uh <v Peter Gay>very mixed signals that I was getting. <v Peter Gay>Uh obviously with lots of negative ones too. <v Narrator 2>Children's books obviously are a very important uh means of communicating an <v Narrator 2>idea, propagandistic or otherwise, to a culture <v Narrator 2>and the folktale fairy tale <v Narrator 2>text books were widely circulated, illustrated, translated <v Narrator 2>into the anti Semitic idiom. <v Alfons Heck>Herr Becker, our elementary t- teacher was quite a patriarch <v Alfons Heck>and also a fanatic Nazi, uh- made sure that we understood

<v Alfons Heck>that these people were different? <v Alfons Heck>Now this was based on a textbook. <v Raul Hilberg>Little children are told to be aware of them and the way we tell <v Raul Hilberg>our children, y'know don't talk to strangers, uh that comes to be <v Raul Hilberg>translated very directly, into don't talk to <v Raul Hilberg>the Jew. Stay away from the Jew. <v Alfons Heck>I joined the Hitler Youth I- because I wanted to for the adventure, not because <v Alfons Heck>of the ideology. That was already a part of me. <v Alfons Heck>I would have never questioned it. <v Ernest Michel>I remember, I had two non-Jewish boy friends. <v Ernest Michel>Uh we were very close. <v Ernest Michel>In 33, 34, and then it changed. <v Ernest Michel>I remember even their names. <v Ernest Michel>Kurt Hess and Heinz Munz. <v Ernest Michel>Uh they were lived in my neighborhood. We were as close as can be. <v Ernest Michel>In 34, 1935, they became members of the Hitler Youth. <v Ernest Michel>And they didn't know me any more.

<v Narrator 2>Jewish emigration after Hitler came to power was slow and steady. <v Narrator 2>Approximately a hundred and fifty thousand over a five year period, but the majority <v Narrator 2>felt that the persecution they were suffering was temporary and that there was no need <v Narrator 2>for them to leave. <v Siegfried Tischauer>It would blow over. Sooner or later, it has to go. <v Siegfried Tischauer>And that was bigger heads than I. Much bigger head [chuckling] have had <v Siegfried Tischauer>the same opinion that will blow over and we're- won't last. <v Siegfried Tischauer>Uh it didn't last a thousand years, but it lasted 12 years. <v Narrator 2>[music plays] In those years, the nature of the Jewish communities changed. <v Narrator 2>As they were excluded from the services of the German state, they made their own. <v Narrator 2>They set up regular schools, welfare and loan organizations, as well as cultural <v Narrator 2>groups. They also set up special mechanical and agricultural schools. <v Narrator 2>To provide practical skills for the young prior to going overseas. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>But we were uh optimistic.

<v Dr. Fred Grubel>And uh therefore, the entire tendency was <v Dr. Fred Grubel>the young people should leave and the old people will stay here, one of these days <v Dr. Fred Grubel>this whole nonsense will be over. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>But the youngsters should not wait for it. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>The old people will stick it out. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>And, uh, somebody, some good journalist coined <v Dr. Fred Grubel>a very touching word in German aus Kindern werden Briefe. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>That is, children become letters from abroad. <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>My favorite um thinking about my mother <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>is that every evening I told you that I was a little spoiled, every evening <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>but spoiled in a good sense. Maybe the same way that I spoiled my children. <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>Uh every evening was laying down with me until I fell <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>asleep. Now, from a pedagogical point of view, you know that I would say, hey, hold it, <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>don't do that. But I do remember very vividly that

<v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>um either my father or my mother read me stories and that she actually held me in her <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>arms until I fell asleep. <v Miriam Cohn>I loved the house in which we lived. It was like a large type Westchester <v Miriam Cohn>home, four stories high with a caretaker and a big garden. <v Miriam Cohn>And I really loved the house. <v Miriam Cohn>My mother and my father, who as a rabbi and <v Miriam Cohn>his spouse felt that we were extremely exposed <v Miriam Cohn>as the only Jewish couple in a few blocks. <v Miriam Cohn>And my mother literally did not feel safe there anymore. <v Miriam Cohn>And we took up residence in the apartment reserved <v Miriam Cohn>for rabbis in the synagogue itself. <v Narrator 2>[music plays] Hitler had always had expansionist aims. <v Narrator 2>In March 1938, the German army moved into Austria quickly, making <v Narrator 2>it part of the Third Reich. <v Narrator 2>The Nazis anti-Semitic policies were put into force with a vengeance by the occupiers

<v Narrator 2>as well as the native born. <v Narrator 2>Suddenly, Austrian Jews needed to emigrate, causing a refugee crisis. <v Narrator 2>Franklin Roosevelt convened a meeting to address the problem, which was held in Evian <v Narrator 2>in France. <v Karl Schleunes>You have your own conference, uh some 30 or more governments represented, <v Karl Schleunes>frankly, accomplished virtually nothing. <v C. Brooks Peters>Rabbi Leo Beck, who is the chief rabbi of Germany, told me afterwards <v C. Brooks Peters>we had talked before and we talked again after the conference that um, <v C. Brooks Peters>I remember I shall never forget the words he used. <v C. Brooks Peters>Uh uh he thought that Roosevelt must have had something up his sleeve <v C. Brooks Peters>or he wouldn't have had the conference convened. <v C. Brooks Peters>And when the conference turned out to be a total failure, <v C. Brooks Peters>uh I remember Rabbi Beck saying uh the future is <v C. Brooks Peters>dim. Nobody wants us. <v C. Brooks Peters>The important thing to me is the Nazis,

<v C. Brooks Peters>as every reporter in Berlin realized at the time, <v C. Brooks Peters>saw that nobody was willing to take these people and therefore <v C. Brooks Peters>anything that they would do in all probability would not meet with more than <v C. Brooks Peters>verbal remonstrance. <v Narrator 2>[ominous music plays] But Germany still wanted its Jews to emigrate. <v Narrator 2>The government closely monitored any changes in the world's policies towards Jews. <v Karl Schleunes>Polish government in uh early October of 1938 issued <v Karl Schleunes>a decree to the effect that uh <v Karl Schleunes>all Polish citizens, including the Polish Jews <v Karl Schleunes>living in Germany at the time, if they had lived <v Karl Schleunes>uh outside of the country for more than 5 consecutive years, would require a revalidation <v Karl Schleunes>of their passports and uh a consulate in order to allow them to return <v Karl Schleunes>to Poland.

<v Karl Schleunes>The Polish calculation being that the uh increased persecution <v Karl Schleunes>in Germany of Jews might in fact lead some of the 60 <v Karl Schleunes>or perhaps many or all of these 60 to 70 thousand Jews to attempt to <v Karl Schleunes>return to Poland. <v Karl Schleunes>This became very clear as soon as these people began <v Karl Schleunes>going to Polish consulates in Germany to get their Polish passports <v Karl Schleunes>revalidated, the stamp is refused. <v Karl Schleunes>The picture becomes clear. <v C. Brooks Peters>The Germans heard about this and they told the Poles, look, we don't <v C. Brooks Peters>want an additional 10 or 15 thousand <v C. Brooks Peters>uh Jews who are stateless when already we are <v C. Brooks Peters>interested only in getting rid of the Jews who are German Jews. <v C. Brooks Peters>If you persist in your policy, we will take <v C. Brooks Peters>countermeasures. <v Jack Goldman>And in October 1938 they

<v Jack Goldman>had a roundup of Jews with Polish passports. <v Jack Goldman>Uh in Mannheim, they only took the men over <v Jack Goldman>18 in Ludwig ?inaudible?, which was just across the uh <v Jack Goldman>River Rhine. The entire family was taken. <v Jack Goldman>My father had been among those who had been arrested that day. <v Jack Goldman>And then as we found out, he and all the others were shipped uh to <v Jack Goldman>Poland. And they were in ?Spunchen? that's right on a border, <v Jack Goldman>but on the Polish side. <v Narrator 2>The situation in Poland was bleak. <v Narrator 2>The Polish government refused to accept the people dumped across the border who were put <v Narrator 2>up in homes, old army barracks, and bombers. <v Zindel Grynszpan>[inaudible speaking]. <v Narrator 2>Zindel Grynszpan. Who had also been shipped to ?inaudible? <v Narrator 2>and gave testimony at the trial of Adolf Eichmann. <v Zindel Grynszpan's Translator>The rain was driving hard. <v Zindel Grynszpan's Translator>People were falling and fainting.

<v Zindel Grynszpan's Translator>Some were suffering heart attacks. On all <v Zindel Grynszpan's Translator>sides I saw old men and women <v Zindel Grynszpan's Translator>and our suffering was great. <v Zindel Grynszpan's Translator>There was no food. We did not ?inaudible? <v Zindel Grynszpan's Translator>from Thursday to eat any German bread. <v Zindel Grynszpan's Translator>[speaking Polish] Then I wrote a letter to German, no to friends, to my son. <v Zindel Grynszpan's Translator>Don't write any more letters to Germany. We are now in ?inaudible? <v Zindel Grynszpan's Translator>in Poland. [music plays] <v Narrator 2>His son, Hershel Grynszpan, had left Germany in 36 to try to find something <v Narrator 2>better for himself. He ended up living illegally in Paris. <v Ron Roizen>He was having trouble finding work and he was um um <v Ron Roizen>you know, his residency couldn't be regularised. <v Ron Roizen>His parents, uh he heard from a letter from his father had been deported <v Ron Roizen>and this expulsion late in in uh October. <v Ron Roizen>So he was very concerned over his family's welfare. <v Ron Roizen>I think he wanted- had his sights set on shooting the German ambassador as a symbolic

<v Ron Roizen>action. ?He? finally made his way into the embassy and said that <v Ron Roizen>he had an important package to deliver to someone, could he <v Ron Roizen>see a member of the location. And he was showing it to ?inaudible? <v Ron Roizen>Ernst vom Rath, vom Rath's office. <v Ron Roizen>Vom Rath was a third secretary. <v Ron Roizen>I think the lowest ranking officer at the uh, at the embassy and apparently <v Ron Roizen>rose to greet him. And Grynszpan wasted little time in in uh <v Ron Roizen>unloading his revolver. <v Narrator 2>Vom Rath was severely wounded and Grynszpan was quietly handed over to the French police. <v Ron Roizen>He was quoted uh after the assassination to make <v Ron Roizen>a rather eloquent uh uh three line comment about <v Ron Roizen>uh that everywhere he'd gone, he'd been chased like a dog and that being a Jew wasn't <v Ron Roizen>a crime an' the Jewish people uh had a right to exist on the earth somewhere, <v Ron Roizen>and that he uh really felt hunted uh <v Ron Roizen>everywhere he'd been in that no uh uh no place would accept him.

<v Narrator 2>Late on the afternoon of the 9th in Paris, Ernst vom Rath died. <v Ernest Michel>And the moment we heard it in the news, there was a bulletin. <v Ernest Michel>We knew, ah! This may lead to something. <v Narrator 2>[music plays] November the 9th was also the 15th anniversary of the Munich Beer Hall <v Narrator 2>Putsch, which was the Nazi's failed attempt to seize power by revolution. <v Narrator 2>Those who died were revered as heroes of the party. <v Narrator 2>This was celebrated annually by the Nazi old guard, in particular the storm troopers. <v Narrator 2>Munich was the center of celebrations. <v Karl Schleunes>On November 9th, Hitler and Goebbels and ?Himmler? <v Karl Schleunes>and ?Garing? and the entire Nazi hierarchy were gathered in <v Karl Schleunes>Munich to to commemorate this most sacred, sacred <v Karl Schleunes>of days. And it's uh I think it's about 7 o'clock. <v Karl Schleunes>News reaches Munich of vom Roth's death in <v Karl Schleunes>Paris. Um.

<v Karl Schleunes>We have some witnesses of people who sort of heard, certainly saw <v Karl Schleunes>and heard what was going on. <v Karl Schleunes>They recall uh Goebbels being in very close conversation <v Karl Schleunes>with Hitler, whispering for a time. <v Karl Schleunes>And one uh witness overhearing at least uh <v Karl Schleunes>the phrase that the SA, the Nazi storm troopers, should be allowed <v Karl Schleunes>perhaps to have a final fling. <v Karl Schleunes>[music plays] And Goebbels is left to make the speech. <v Karl Schleunes>Again an exact record of what he said uh, was not kept. <v Karl Schleunes>He spoke uh off the cuff, but enough witnesses suggest <v Karl Schleunes>that he did allude, of course, to the crime in Paris. <v Karl Schleunes>The Jewish crime in Paris, told the audience about the death vom <v Karl Schleunes>Roth and said that the party leadership <v Karl Schleunes>would uh have nothing against an expression

<v Karl Schleunes>of uh resentment on the part of the German people <v Karl Schleunes>against this Jewish crime. <v Raul Hilberg>The Nazi Party and its formations were not to <v Raul Hilberg>enter into any activities <v Raul Hilberg>of violence against the Jews in the streets or in their homes. <v Raul Hilberg>But on the other hand, they were not going to prevent, they <v Raul Hilberg>were not supposed to prevent any spontaneous <v Raul Hilberg>outburst of anger within the German population. <v Raul Hilberg>These orders went out in the late evening hours of the night <v Raul Hilberg>and were interpreted by party officials to mean that the party <v Raul Hilberg>should organize actions against the Jews, but <v Raul Hilberg>that it should not appear as the organizer of <v Raul Hilberg>these actions. [ominous music plays]

<v Narrator 2>Quickly, with little or no attempts at disguise, storm troopers throughout the country <v Narrator 2>began to take their revenge. <v C. Brooks Peters>But it almost uh precisely to wait in a motorcade <v C. Brooks Peters>came down the Friedrichstrasse, made a right turn <v C. Brooks Peters>into the Leipzigestrasse and after the entire <v C. Brooks Peters>motorcade, which consisted of a dozen plus or minus <v C. Brooks Peters>a couple Mercedes touring cars, open touring <v C. Brooks Peters>cars with the tops down. <v C. Brooks Peters>After the entire motorcade had turned in to the Leipzige Street <v C. Brooks Peters>uh at a signal from a man in the first the leading car in <v C. Brooks Peters>the motorcade, the entire motorcade came to a stop. <v C. Brooks Peters>At another signal from the man in the leading car 4 people <v C. Brooks Peters>of the 5 in each of these automobiles, alighted,

<v C. Brooks Peters>jumped from the cars and proceeded 2 in each <v C. Brooks Peters>car with an iron crowbar, the other 2 wearing gloves, <v C. Brooks Peters>presumably to prevent their getting cut, uh <v C. Brooks Peters>the men with the crowbars banged in the showcase windows <v C. Brooks Peters>of every Jewish owned shop. [ominous music] <v Peter Gay>Now, the first thing I saw was the kind of ?inaudible? <v Peter Gay>an enormous place, almost as large as Macy's <v Peter Gay>it occupies... occupied then, occupies now a large city block, <v Peter Gay>at about 6 stories. And what I saw was uh an <v Peter Gay>unbelievable mess of smashed windows, mannequins on the on on

<v Peter Gay>the street. <v Frederick Oechsner>This uh uh ?din? <v Frederick Oechsner>of of breaking glass took place in uh in um an an amazing <v Frederick Oechsner>silence otherwise. <v Frederick Oechsner>I didn't hear any shouts, noises. <v Frederick Oechsner>It was as quiet as an execution. <v Narrator 2>The smashed glass in the store windows of Berlin was just one part of the loosely <v Narrator 2>organized operation simultaneously occurring all over Germany. <v Helga Franks>When I came out, it was a beautiful sunny morning, uh but <v Helga Franks>I smelled something in the air and I said gee how come it's... <v Helga Franks>what's burning? I mean, it was too late for leaves and s- <v Helga Franks>and I turned uh to the right and I <v Helga Franks>s- saw the temp-, the synagogue, and I saw lights inside <v Helga Franks>the synagogue. I said, what's going on?

<v Helga Franks>In morning? What is it? A holiday? And I could figure out there was no holiday in <v Helga Franks>November. And then I suddenly looked and <v Helga Franks>I saw a decrepit fire truck standing in front of the temple, a <v Helga Franks>small one. I said, what's that fire truck doing? <v Helga Franks>And with that I see one fireman stands <v Helga Franks>standing on behind the synagogue and on top of another <v Helga Franks>building and having a hose in his hand. <v Helga Franks>And suddenly I realized that this light which I was seeing <v Helga Franks>was fire inside the synagogue. <v Helga Franks>And just firemen was apparently protecting the other building. <v Alfons Heck>I saw the destruction of the synagogue, which was less <v Alfons Heck>than uh 400 yards from our home. <v Alfons Heck>It wasn't burned, but it was destroyed totally on the inside by uh... <v Alfons Heck>SR troopers. Some civilians, some members of the SS and pretty <v Alfons Heck>soon there were perhaps 100 people standing outside watching the

<v Alfons Heck>destruction. <v Alfons Heck>And it was a strange feeling you sort of were stunned by the brutality <v Alfons Heck>of it. But there was also a certain amount of excitement in it. <v Alfons Heck>You thought, if the state can do this, it must be really powerful. <v Helga Franks>And I ran in crying and I was I remember I was crying. <v Helga Franks>I said, the synagogue is burning. <v Helga Franks>And uh my father, ya know got up and ran <v Helga Franks>on next to the window and looked out and said, well, why aren't they doing <v Helga Franks>anything? He was upset. There was this fire uh man. <v Helga Franks>And I don't know what possess- possessed me, but I said they don't want to do anything. <v Alfons Heck>And I must say, the destruction... <v Alfons Heck>it worked a certain amount of fascination, especially in us young. <v Alfons Heck>You almost wanted to smash things, too. <v Alfons Heck>I think that would be a correct description.

<v Alfons Heck>And many people seem to ?it does? <v Alfons Heck>seem to share that view because several others did go into the synagogue <v Alfons Heck>and help to smash things. <v Alfons Heck>It was in fact my uncle who had turned my friend and I around and chased us home. <v Narrator 2>[music plays] Over 1000 synagogues were destroyed in Germany through vandalism, through <v Narrator 2>fire and through explosives. <v Narrator 2>The fire and police departments had been ordered not to interfere with the attacks on <v Narrator 2>synagogues in stores, except the extent of protecting other Aryan property. <v Narrator 2>But the terror didn't stop there. <v Narrator 2>It extended into people's homes. <v Paula Klein>When they came in, but I ?hided? <v Paula Klein>my husband with my baby.

<v Paula Klein>My daughter was a little girl. <v Paula Klein>So my in-laws set my husband and this baby, <v Paula Klein>we hide it all up in the attic you know. <v Jack Goldman>My mother opened up the door and they just pushed her aside as they came <v Jack Goldman>in. There are a number of them. <v Jack Goldman>I don't remember how many of them came in, but there was a group, not just one or two. <v Jack Goldman>And as they were going through the apartment looking for items to uh to throw out the <v Jack Goldman>window and ask you for specific items such as prayer books. <v Jack Goldman>Uh I was dumbfounded. <v Paula Klein>Every house, every Jewish house. <v Paula Klein>You could see nothing in stores, stones and glass, some glasses, <v Paula Klein>some dishes on furniture lying there and <v Paula Klein>I can tell you everything broke, broke. <v Ernest Michel>I went to our apartment and a frightful sight was <v Ernest Michel>there. The apartment was ransacked.

<v Ernest Michel>My father had been arrested. <v Ernest Michel>My sister was not there. I didn't know where she was. <v Ernest Michel>My mother was beaten and the whole furniture, everything <v Ernest Michel>was in disarray. <v Paula Klein>The Kristallnacht came. <v Paula Klein>And he saw this piano standing there. <v Paula Klein>I think 50 went like crazy <v Paula Klein>of this piano. <v Paula Klein>Broke this piano, you can't believe it. <v Paula Klein>Left ?what little? wood. <v Paula Klein>I can't believe it. <v Miriam Cohn>My mother ran into the bedroom, which I shared with my <v Miriam Cohn>sister, and she said that we had to get up immediately <v Miriam Cohn>because the Nazis were coming into the building and were <v Miriam Cohn>already in the synagogue next door. <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>So my two sisters, my brother and I, the 4 children, were alone <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>in the apartment that night, which turned out to be Kristallnacht.

<v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>So we really didn't know exactly what was happening. <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>We do remember the following. <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>We got a call from a brother of my father, and he urged <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>us immediately to try to close the doors to our house, to <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>pull down the shutters and give the impression as if no one were home. <v Miriam Cohn>So when I left my bedroom, I was met by <v Miriam Cohn>a hulking Nazi with his usual black boots <v Miriam Cohn>that we are all familiar with. <v Miriam Cohn>And I became frightened. <v Miriam Cohn>It was a very big man. It seemed like a very big man. <v Miriam Cohn>And he seemed menacing. <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>And just at that time, we heard a key turn in our door. <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>And who walked in? It was the son of the uh Catholic family <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>that lived on the second floor and this son who at that time was 17, his name <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>was Felix. <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>Uh when he saw me whimpering and he saw all of us like uh little scared rabbits, he said, <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>what's going on? And we explained to him and he immediately said,

<v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>You have nothing to worry about,Felix is here. <v Miriam Cohn>And as I came to the first floor, I saw <v Miriam Cohn>the father of the caretaker of the building standing there <v Miriam Cohn>in a long night white shirt, which is what Europeans wore at that <v Miriam Cohn>time. Absolutely staring at and glued to <v Miriam Cohn>a spot which was to the right of me. <v Miriam Cohn>And as I looked at that spot, I literally saw the interior <v Miriam Cohn>of the synagogue in flames, and slowly the smoke <v Miriam Cohn>was enveloping our side of the building. <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>And we thought, you know, it might be bravado of a 17 year old. <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>What he did was he immediately changed to his Hitler Youth uniform and <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>then he leaned out the window on the second floor. <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>And when the mob came to our house, he said, this house has <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>been sold to Aryans. <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>Any damage you will do, you'll be responsible for there are no more Jews here.

<v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>And uh so in a sense uh, it was just a young, Catholic, <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>?humane? individual, who saved our lives. <v Rabbi Karl Richter>Regardless, of course, we attended to everyone who came in, it was like a field <v Rabbi Karl Richter>hospital during a war. <v Rabbi Karl Richter>Uh doctors and nurses uh chasing around, trying to bind up wounds, to set <v Rabbi Karl Richter>uh broken bones and so forth. <v Rabbi Karl Richter>I remember one 90 year old woman whose ear had been smashed with an ax <v Rabbi Karl Richter>and uh, she died a few days later. <v Rabbi Karl Richter>But this was the kind of outrage that happened in the uh uh <v Rabbi Karl Richter>heat of this uh Kristallnacht. <v Frederick Oechsner>It was eerie. Of course, it was terrifying. <v Frederick Oechsner>It was just uh [stuttering] <v Frederick Oechsner>everything gone wild. I mean, it was what you ?inaudible? <v Frederick Oechsner>have nightmares about. <v Ernest Michel>[music plays] The home and the synagogue, the two centers of our life <v Ernest Michel>in Mannheim uh being uh one burning, the other

<v Ernest Michel>one ransacked. Where're we gonna go? What, what am I gonna do? <v Ernest Michel>What's gonna happen to me? <v Narrator 2>Late on the afternoon of the 10th, Goebbels ordered an end to the destruction. <v Narrator 2>The reaction of the general population was mixed. <v Alfons Heck>The next day in school, Herr Becker, our elementary school teacher, <v Alfons Heck>was a very straight laced Christian, very anti-Semitic <v Alfons Heck>explained to us that it's incredible that property is <v Alfons Heck>destroyed. But he said we have to show these people that they cannot get away <v Alfons Heck>with the murder of German diplomats. <v Rabbi Karl Richter>Uh but there were other people I remember that a pious Christian woman came to my mother <v Rabbi Karl Richter>the day after it happened and said after what they did to the synagogues, <v Rabbi Karl Richter>fire will fall from heaven and destroy our cities.

<v Rabbi Karl Richter>Now, she meant it in the biblical sense, but as we know, it happened in a real sense. <v Rabbi Karl Richter>When the German cities were destroyed by bombing in the Second World War. <v Narrator 2>[music plays] One part of the Kristallnacht continued. <v Narrator 2>The arrest of 20,000 Jewish males had been ordered by the SS. <v Narrator 2>They and in some cases, the local police, continued to arrest people, <v Narrator 2>process them through the local jails and ship them to the concentration camps of Dachau, <v Narrator 2>Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald. <v Paula Klein>?On the? next day, they came. <v Paula Klein>?inaudible? he said ?inaudible?, ya know? <v Paula Klein>And said, I'm very sorry to my husband. <v Paula Klein>I'm so sorry. I have to take you in. <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>And I do remember looking out of the window to the street where my father <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>or father boarded a truck. <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>I do not remember any brutality there.

<v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>And no, there was no screaming. It was very quiet. <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>My father was a short, slight man with a mustache and I do remember <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>faintly, he he tried to muster a faint smile <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>and waved as if to say things will be all right. <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>That was the last time that I ever saw my father. <v Siegfried Tischauer>In the afternoosn [coughs] uh we were or <v Siegfried Tischauer>always ?inaudible? around 100, approximately 100 <v Siegfried Tischauer>men. We were marched uh four <v Siegfried Tischauer>abreast to the railway station, flanked on both sides <v Siegfried Tischauer>by police and SS. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>The next day we got all our stuff back. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>We are put on, uh uh, ?inaudible? <v Dr. Fred Grubel>and shipped off to the, uh, station. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>Destination Buchenwald.

<v Narrator 2>[music plays] The concentration camps had been set up just after Hitler came to power. <v Narrator 2>In 1938, they were still labor camps, the ovens and gas chambers <v Narrator 2>were still in the future. <v Siegfried Tischauer>As we arrived there, it is as I've seen it with my own eyes <v Siegfried Tischauer>an elderly man they held the foot there, so he fall and broke his neck. <v Siegfried Tischauer>But it didn't matter to them. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>They uh told us that the water <v Dr. Fred Grubel>is spoiled and the water is infected, <v Dr. Fred Grubel>and we only get sick if we drink water. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>So for three or four days, we didn't drink until it started <v Dr. Fred Grubel>raining, and I never my life would have thought that I happy that it rained so that <v Dr. Fred Grubel>I can drink rainwater because the rainwater we knew is clean. <v Siegfried Tischauer>I don't know why, but stuck his rifle right to my stomach and

<v Siegfried Tischauer>said, what would you say now, Jew, if I shoot you. <v Siegfried Tischauer>I have always been open, I have never beaten around the bush, I am very, <v Siegfried Tischauer>very open on this. <v Siegfried Tischauer>I speak up, but the good Lord protected me. <v Siegfried Tischauer>I kept my mouth shut because what I would have said would have been the wrong word. <v Siegfried Tischauer>Eh I would have said I ?inaudible? like it or because he would have probably gotten a <v Siegfried Tischauer>medal for shooting me. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>One thing was very touching. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>When the Orthodox rabbis went around and told <v Dr. Fred Grubel>the Orthodox people that they commit a sin <v Dr. Fred Grubel>if they don't eat this, certainly not kosher food, <v Dr. Fred Grubel>because the worst sin is to endanger your own life. <v Siegfried Tischauer>And uh had to watch the execution <v Siegfried Tischauer>of 4 or 5, I'm not quite sure the one uh the which of the two <v Siegfried Tischauer>uh prisoners on the gallows.

<v Siegfried Tischauer>First they would play music, ya know, waltzes, marches and <v Siegfried Tischauer>uh like this a Octoberfest ?inaudible? <v Siegfried Tischauer>almost say. <v Siegfried Tischauer>And uh we were forced, we had to cede. <v Siegfried Tischauer>That uh I think everybody did, what's that uh, we'll never <v Siegfried Tischauer>forget that. <v Narrator 2>Most who died in the camps died from the bad conditions. <v Rabbi Karl Richter>The sad times began when the first coffins arrived from <v Rabbi Karl Richter>the concentration camps of Dachau and Buchenwald. <v Rabbi Karl Richter>The coffins were closed, we were not permitted to open them. <v Rabbi Karl Richter>Uh we were told to proceed immediately to the cemetery for interment. <v Rabbi Karl Richter>There was always a secret policeman watching the procession <v Rabbi Karl Richter>and listening to it. <v Rabbi Karl Richter>We were strictly warned not to mention the cause of death, however it happened.

<v Narrator 2>Some of the men were released in a few weeks. <v Narrator 2>Some were held for months. <v Narrator 2>Usually their release was because their families had arranged for emigration. <v Paula Klein>So, he asked me, who do you want to see? <v Paula Klein>I said ?inaudible?. No, you Jew! <v Paula Klein>I said, oh, yes, I want to see him. <v Paula Klein>I want to speak to him. From one door to the other door. <v Paula Klein> I was shaking ya know. <v Paula Klein>So all of a sudden we- I came in and he was standing with the back, <v Paula Klein>he wouldn't look at me. <v Paula Klein>And his face on the table. <v Paula Klein>What do you want? <v Paula Klein>So I said I'm ?a Jude?. <v Paula Klein>And my husband is in Dachau. <v Paula Klein>And I want my husband. <v Paula Klein>And you won't listen to me. He listened to me. <v Paula Klein>All of a sudden he turns around. <v Paula Klein>?inaudible? I thought and now he's sho- shooting me.

<v Paula Klein>Now I am finished. I'm ?inaudible?. <v Paula Klein>Here, I said. Oh, no, I don't need money. <v Paula Klein>I want my husband. <v Paula Klein>?inaudible? I said or ?inaudible? <v Paula Klein>more, I don't know, he's in Dachau. <v Paula Klein>He's went on the telephone. I heard it speak. <v Paula Klein>And then he said, go home, you Jew. <v Paula Klein>I went home and I told my father and my in-laws. <v Paula Klein>What I did. You ?inaudible? <v Paula Klein>for nothing, we don't believe it, and ya know. <v Paula Klein>3, 4 days later my husband came. <v Paula Klein>[sighs] But you couldn't believe how he looked. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>We are told immediately after arrival we should report to the <v Dr. Fred Grubel>Gestapo. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>And some how or other I even was able to <v Dr. Fred Grubel>uh send a cable or a a telegram to my wife that with which train <v Dr. Fred Grubel>I would come and she picked me up and when I said, we know that was in the evening, I <v Dr. Fred Grubel>have to go to the Gestapo. She says, no, you feel safe to take it.

<v Dr. Fred Grubel>I have to take a bath and we go home. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>Tomorrow is time enough. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>She was right. [music plays] <v Narrator 2>In the meantime, the body of Ernst vom Rath was returned to Germany. <v Narrator 2>In the hours before he died he had been promoted and his funeral was a state event <v Narrator 2>attended by Hitler himself. <v Narrator 2>Hershel Grynszpan was never tried. <v Narrator 2>No one knows what happened to him. <v Narrator 2>He disappeared while being held by the Germans during World War 2. <v Narrator 2>On November 12th, meeting was chaired by Hermann Göring, Hitler's right hand man. <v Narrator 2>It evaluated what had happened and ended with several decrees. <v Raul Hilberg>It was a mess as far as Göring was concerned. <v Raul Hilberg>He said this is a terrible thing. It must never happen again. <v Karl Schleunes>Not because uh Jews have been hurt. <v Karl Schleunes>As a matter of fact, at one point he said, I rather that you would have killed 200 Jews,

<v Karl Schleunes>than destroyed all of this uh, destroyed all of this property. <v Karl Schleunes>It's going to take uh uh almost a year to replace <v Karl Schleunes>the glass, th- the glass alone. <v Raul Hilberg>In general, uh the voluntary Aryanisation program became compulsory <v Raul Hilberg>by the end of the year. <v Raul Hilberg>Liquidations of Jewish enterprises were not pursued. <v Raul Hilberg>Uh Jewish doctors and lawyers were virtually out of business except insofar <v Raul Hilberg>as they still had Jewish clients or patients. <v Raul Hilberg>In short, the Jewish economy was in a total shambles that had <v Raul Hilberg>begun to disappear and emigration was a dire <v Raul Hilberg>necessity. So that's why Jews began to go to Cuba. <v Raul Hilberg>They went to Shanghai. They went anywhere they could go. <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>You see, what I do remember very vividly is my mother, my grandmother, <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>because don't forget, my father already was taken away to a detention camp. <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>My mother and my grandmother sitting me down and telling me that I'm

<v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>supposed to go to Switzerland with a group of children and my crying and saying, I don't <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>wanna go. And I do remember vividly that they said, <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>if you go, your father can come back home and then we'll try <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>we'll pick you up in 6 months. <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>Today, I know that they knew that that wasn't true because I remember the letters I got <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>into Switzerland, which I still have. <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>Uh where my grandmother said it's not going to be so bad and I'm not going to move and uh <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>I won't go further than the cemetery. <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>Was my grandmother's um uh saying because she believed in <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>that things may not be so bad. It would be like a bad time that would pass over. <v Dr. Ruth Westheimer>[music plays] <v Edwin H. Hughes>A plee for the Jew is now a moral plee for our selves. <v Edwin H. Hughes>Humanity cannot afford to be silent. <v Narrator 2>The Western countries did little to help.

<v Narrator 2>The United States at that time had strict immigration quotas. <v Narrator 2>It didn't matter if one had money, visas or affidavits of support from American citizens. <v Ernest Michel>I was told by the American consulate and here, forgive me, I become <v Ernest Michel>very emotional about it. <v Ernest Michel>Because this not only affects me, this affected thousands of people. <v Ernest Michel>I was told that <v Ernest Michel>I would be able to come to the United States in 19 hundred and <v Ernest Michel>42. <v Ernest Michel>39, 40, 41. <v Ernest Michel>4 years later. <v Ernest Michel>I had an affidavit. I was 16 years old. <v Ernest Michel>I had an opportunity to get out, but the American government <v Ernest Michel>did not permit me to leave Germany and to get to the <v Ernest Michel>United States. <v Raul Hilberg>Whole idea of conducting violence in the streets

<v Raul Hilberg>had become dead. <v Raul Hilberg>Because what had happened was a lot of corruption. <v Raul Hilberg>People were now stuffing their pockets. <v Raul Hilberg>The very thing that the Nazis were afraid of had happened <v Raul Hilberg>and it is interesting to note that there never was a repetition <v Raul Hilberg>on German soil of a November 10 throughout <v Raul Hilberg>the Nazi regime. <v Karl Schleunes>In a sense, the solutions now sought for the Jewish <v Karl Schleunes>problem after Kristallnacht in 1938 are <v Karl Schleunes>of the more orderly variety. <v Karl Schleunes>Although one has to keep in mind that that order uh term orderly, <v Karl Schleunes>in fact, also suggests mass murder. <v Raul Hilberg>As either voluntary emigration or forced emigration had <v Raul Hilberg>become impossible. <v Raul Hilberg>The idea of a territorial solution, so-called, emerged. <v Raul Hilberg>That was the final solution of the Jewish question in Europe.

<v Raul Hilberg>It was in short the annihilation of the Jews. <v Raul Hilberg>[music plays] <v Rabbi Karl Richter>History is memory. <v Rabbi Karl Richter>Once you do not have a memory of past events, you have no history. <v Helga Franks>I think k- uh Kristallancht was for me sort <v Helga Franks>of the realization that uh, it <v Helga Franks>was the end of my life in Germany and <v Helga Franks>it was sort of li- the end of a life of childhood. <v Alfons Heck>I think it ended the feelings of illusion for both <v Alfons Heck>sides, the Jews and us Germans, or if you <v Alfons Heck>were Nazis, because from that moment on, nobody <v Alfons Heck>could be under any illusion what was going to happen at the very

<v Alfons Heck>least. And it was spelled out very clearly and daily. <v Alfons Heck>Germany was to be cleaned of Jews. <v Rabbi Karl Richter>I believe that the Kristallnacht really was the opening shot <v Rabbi Karl Richter>in the war, in Hitler's war against the Jews. <v Rabbi Karl Richter>And we knew that he aimed, after that time, at total destruction. <v Rabbi Karl Richter>We hadn't realized it before. <v Rabbi Karl Richter>But I think this was the turning point. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>There was no right, left. Absolutely nothing. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>This is the uh fantastic <v Dr. Fred Grubel>uh meaning of this pogrom. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>I like to call it pogrom and not Kristallnight. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>Kristallnight is uh an invention of the <v Dr. Fred Grubel>pretty flippant uh street language of ?inaudible? <v Dr. Fred Grubel>who called it Kristall because there was so much Kristall on the street and it then was <v Dr. Fred Grubel>picked up. It was this pogrom which <v Dr. Fred Grubel>for the first time showed that the Nazis are

<v Dr. Fred Grubel>unique in the uh complete disregard <v Dr. Fred Grubel>for any kind of humanity and for any kind of <v Dr. Fred Grubel>respect for pure life. <v Dr. Fred Grubel>Then we knew that was the end. <v Raul Hilberg>Nevertheless, uh there's a great irony in this whole situation. <v Raul Hilberg>This speedup of Jewish emigration as a consequence <v Raul Hilberg>of November 10, 1938, and we <v Raul Hilberg>cannot now say how many Jews would have stayed and been <v Raul Hilberg>trapped in Germany had it not been for November 1938. <v Raul Hilberg>But we can say that almost 100,000 thousand Jews left <v Raul Hilberg>Germany after November 10. <v Raul Hilberg>And Austria, uh in the case of Austria, we can say that <v Raul Hilberg>perhaps 60,000 or more left Austria after November

<v Raul Hilberg>10. This acceleration of emigration simply meant that <v Raul Hilberg>people who might have stayed would have died in Auschwitz. <v Raul Hilberg>Instead, perhaps they went to Cuba. <v Raul Hilberg>Perhaps they went to Shanghai. Perhaps they went to some other not <v Raul Hilberg>desirable place, but nevertheless, one which gave them safety. <v Paula Klein>When they came, everything was broke. <v Paula Klein>I was crying. I said to my husband, my piano my- he said, that's why <v Paula Klein>you cry? <v Paula Klein>This was not right. If you he said you cry about your piano. <v Paula Klein>They kill people, everybody. <v Paula Klein>A piano we can ?inaudible? buy again. <v Paula Klein>But, you know, that's nothing. <v Paula Klein>He was mad and we have ?inaudible?. <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>There's a story in the Talmud which might sum up this whole thing that <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>uh when the Romans were persecuting the Jews, way back when, <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>they took a famous rabbi, and they took a scroll of the Torah and

<v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>wandered round about him and then they made a bonfire. <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>And when they asked the rabbi while he was in deep agony, what do you see? <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>His answer was, I see the parchment burning, but I see the letters <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>soaring upward. <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>And I guess what the Talmud is trying to say is that the spirit <v Rabbi Manfred Fulda>can never be destroyed. [music plays] <v Narrator 1>Funding for more than broken glass. Memories of Kristallnacht was provided by these and

<v Narrator 1>other contributors. <v Narrator 1>A complete list is available from PBS. <v Narrator 1>[PBS theme plays]