Remembrance

What Was Kristallnacht?

ליל הבדולח

Quick Answer

Kristallnacht, the "Night of Broken Glass," was a state-sponsored pogrom on November 9 and 10, 1938, when Nazis burned synagogues, wrecked Jewish-owned businesses and homes, killed Jews and sent tens of thousands of Jewish men to concentration camps across Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland. It matters because it was a turning point: open, nationwide violence against Jews on the road to the Holocaust.

On the night of November 9, 1938, and through the next day, Nazi leaders unleashed a nationwide attack on Jewish life. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum calls it "state-sponsored vandalism, arson, and terror," meant to look like an unplanned outburst of popular anger. For the Jews of Germany and Austria, it shattered any belief that they could stay safe at home.

We remember the night the windows broke, and every family behind them.

What Led to Kristallnacht?

1938 was already a year of escalation. Nazi Germany annexed Austria in March and the Sudetenland in September and October, and it stepped up anti-Jewish measures with one goal, according to the USHMM: to drive Jews out.

On October 27 to 29, 1938, German authorities rounded up and deported more than 17,000 Jews with Polish citizenship, many of them born in Germany, per the USHMM. Yad Vashem calls it the first mass deportation of Jews: SS men drove children, the elderly and the sick across the Polish border, and most were held in abandoned stables near the border town of Zbąszyń.

Among the deported were Zyndel and Ryfka Grynszpan, sent from Hanover to Zbąszyń. Their 17-year-old son Herschel was living in Paris. On the morning of November 7, after learning of his family's deportation, he went to the German Embassy and shot Ernst vom Rath, a minor German diplomat, who died of his wounds on November 9 (USHMM).

The regime used the shooting as an excuse. That evening, with Nazi leaders gathered in Munich for the anniversary of Hitler's failed 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, after conferring with Hitler, urged violent reprisals staged to appear as "spontaneous demonstrations," in Britannica's account. Telephone orders spread from Munich across the country. Yad Vashem is plain about it: the pogrom "had been planned and implemented by the highest echelons of the Nazi leadership."

Just before midnight, Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller ordered the arrest of 20,000 to 30,000 Jewish men, and at 1:20 a.m. on November 10, Reinhard Heydrich told police not to interfere with what he called "demonstrations" (USHMM). Firefighters stood by burning synagogues with orders to act only if flames threatened neighboring non-Jewish property (Britannica).

What Happened During Kristallnacht?

Through the night and into the next day, members of the SA, SS and Hitler Youth attacked Jewish communities in cities and small towns, and ordinary civilians often joined in. The attackers and their victims frequently knew each other (USHMM). Torah scrolls were torn, burned or thrown into rivers, and Jewish men were marched through the streets in front of their neighbors.

The three leading references agree on what happened. Their counts differ, so we give each one as its source publishes it:

Synagogues: more than 1,400 destroyed throughout Germany and its annexed territories (USHMM); more than 1,400 torched across Germany and Austria (Yad Vashem); more than 1,000 burned or otherwise damaged (Britannica).
Businesses: thousands of Jewish-owned stores and businesses vandalized (USHMM); about 7,500 ransacked and looted (Britannica).
Homes: thousands of Jewish homes broken into and vandalized, often in the middle of the night (USHMM); Jewish hospitals, schools and cemeteries were vandalized too (Britannica).
Arrests: about 26,000 Jewish men imprisoned in the Dachau, Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen concentration camps (USHMM); approximately 30,000 Jews arrested and sent to concentration camps (Yad Vashem); some 30,000 Jewish males aged 16 to 60 arrested (Britannica).
Deaths: 91 Jews murdered during the pogrom (Yad Vashem); at least 91 killed (Britannica); hundreds of Jews died during Kristallnacht and its aftermath, from violence, wounds and shock, with hundreds more deaths by suicide (USHMM).

The death figures measure different things. The 91 counts Jews murdered during the pogrom itself; the USHMM's "hundreds" covers Kristallnacht and its aftermath.

The riot lasted about 24 hours. The regime called it off at 4 p.m. on November 10, though mob violence went on into at least the next day (USHMM), and in some places for several more days (Britannica).

Why Is It Called Kristallnacht?

The name comes from the glass. During the Nazi era, Germans began calling the pogrom Reichskristallnacht, "Reich Night of Crystal," after the shards of shattered window glass that lined German streets. It was later shortened to Kristallnacht, usually translated as "Night of Broken Glass" (USHMM). Britannica notes that the name "refers ironically" to that broken glass and calls it an "oddly poetic name."

It was never the only name. Nazi authorities called it an Aktion, an "operation," while Jews at the time called it what it was, a pogrom, placing it in a long history of anti-Jewish violence. In Germany today it is usually called the Reichspogromnacht or the Novemberpogrom (USHMM). Yad Vashem calls it the November Pogrom and puts "Kristallnacht" in quotation marks.

What Happened After Kristallnacht?

The victims were made to pay. On November 12, Hermann Göring announced orders from Hitler: Jews would pay a fine of one billion Reichsmarks as an "atonement payment," Jewish owners would pay to repair the damage, and their insurance payouts would be confiscated by the state (USHMM). Britannica puts the fine at about $400 million in 1938.

Decrees followed within weeks. In the month after the pogrom, new measures banned Jews from carrying firearms, operating retail stores, receiving most public welfare and attending public school. A decree on November 28 let officials restrict when and where Jews could appear in public, and a decree on December 3 regulated the takeover of Jewish businesses and property, the theft called "Aryanization" (USHMM). Britannica dates the school ban to November 15 and says that by December 1938 Jews were banned from most public places.

Most of the men sent to the camps were released after several weeks, some only after signing over their businesses or proving they planned to emigrate. Hundreds died from the brutal treatment they endured there (USHMM).

Families now looked for any way out. Yad Vashem records a marked increase in Jewish emigration after the pogrom, held back by the strict limits other countries placed on refugees. In Britain, aid groups organized the Kindertransports, which ultimately helped thousands of children escape (USHMM). For how America answered, see our history of Jews in America.

How Did Kristallnacht Lead to the Holocaust?

The USHMM calls Kristallnacht a watershed. It was the first time the Nazi regime imprisoned Jews on a mass scale simply because they were Jewish, and arson, assault and arrest came all at once, across the whole country, as systemic state-sponsored terror. Britannica writes that afterward the regime "made Jewish survival in Germany impossible," and Yad Vashem calls the pogrom a precursor to the destruction of European Jewry in the Holocaust, which we remember each year on Yom HaShoah.

How Is Kristallnacht Remembered Today?

Kristallnacht is remembered on its anniversary, November 9. In Yad Vashem's words, "On November 9th, countries around the world mark the November 1938 Pogrom." It is a civil date, not a Hebrew one, so it falls on the same days every year; see where it sits in the year on our Jewish calendar and holidays page.

How Can You Mark Kristallnacht?

Leave a light on. Yad Vashem's "Spread the Light" initiative asks synagogues, cultural establishments, places of gathering and study, and communal buildings to keep their lights on overnight on November 9, 2026, as a sign that the attempt to crush the Jewish spirit failed (Yad Vashem).
Hold a ceremony. Yad Vashem publishes a free memorial ceremony built on the words of Jewish children who lived through the pogrom, written for students to read aloud (Yad Vashem).
Hear the witnesses. The USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia carries survivor testimony and photographs from that night.
Visit in person. Find a Jewish museum near you.

Common Questions

What was Kristallnacht?

Kristallnacht was a nationwide, state-sponsored pogrom against Jews on November 9 and 10, 1938, across Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland. Nazis burned synagogues, wrecked Jewish-owned businesses and homes, killed Jews and sent tens of thousands of Jewish men to concentration camps.

What does Kristallnacht mean?

Kristallnacht is German for "Crystal Night." It is short for Reichskristallnacht, a Nazi-era term for the shattered window glass that lined German streets after the pogrom. In English it is called the Night of Broken Glass, and in Germany today often the Novemberpogrom.

When was Kristallnacht?

Kristallnacht began on the night of November 9, 1938, and continued through November 10. According to the USHMM, the regime called off the riot at 4 p.m. on November 10, though mob violence continued into at least the next day.

Why is it called the Night of Broken Glass?

Because of the glass. Rioters smashed the windows of Jewish-owned shops and homes, and the shards covered German streets. The name comes from the Nazi-era German term Reichskristallnacht, which Britannica says "refers ironically" to that broken glass.

How many people died on Kristallnacht?

At least 91 Jews were murdered during the pogrom itself, according to Yad Vashem and Britannica. The USHMM says hundreds of Jews died during Kristallnacht and its aftermath, from violence, wounds and shock, with hundreds more deaths by suicide.

Sources

Next Observed

November 9 and 10, every year

Kristallnacht is remembered on its civil anniversary, not a Hebrew date, so it falls on the same days every year.

All upcoming dates: Jewish holidays calendar

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