Kristallnacht

Night of 9–10 November 1938 when the Nazi Sturmabteilung (SA) militia in Germany and Austria mounted a concerted attack on Jews, their synagogues, homes, and shops. It followed the assassination of a German embassy official in Paris by a Polish‐Jewish youth. Subsequent measures included German legislation against Jews owning businesses or property, and restrictions on their going to school or leaving Germany. It was part of the Holocaust.

More than 200,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps, and 91 Jews were killed during the Kristallnacht. The damage to property is estimated at 25 million marks.

This pogrom precipitated a rush by Jews for visas to other countries, but restrictive immigration policies throughout the world, and obstructive Nazi regulations at home, made it impossible for most of them to leave.