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N0KFQ > TODAY 09.11.10 19:03l 70 Lines 3049 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Nov 9
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From: N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
To : TODAY@WW
Nov 9, 1938:
"The Night of Broken Glass"
This day in 1938 saw the organized destruction of Jewish
businesses and homes in Munich, as well as the beating and murder
of Jewish men, women, and children.
It was an exercise in terror that would be called
"Kristallnacht," or "the Night of Broken Glass," because of the
cost of broken glass in looted Jewish shops_$5 million marks
($1,250,000).
On November 7, in Paris, a 17-year-old German Jewish refugee,
Herschel Grynszpan, shot and killed the third secretary of the
German embassy, Ernst vom Rath. Grynszpan had intended to avenge
the deportation of his father to Poland and the ongoing
persecution of Jews in Germany by killing the German ambassador.
Instead, the secretary was sent out to see what the angry young
man wanted and was killed. The irony is that Rath was not an
anti-Semite; in fact, he was an anti-Nazi.
As revenge for this shooting, Joseph Goebbels, Nazi minister of
propaganda, and Reinhard Heydrich, second in command of the SS
after Heinrich Himmler, ordered "spontaneous demonstrations" of
protest against the Jewish citizens of Munich. The order, in the
form of a teletyped message to all SS headquarters and state
police stations, laid out the blueprint for the destruction of
Jewish homes and businesses. The local police were not to
interfere with the rioting storm troopers, and as many Jews as
possible were to be arrested with an eye toward deporting them to
concentration camps.
In Heydrich's report to Hermann Goering after Kristallnacht, the
damage was assessed: "...815 shops destroyed, 171 dwelling houses
set on fire or destroyed... 119 synagogues were set on fire, and
another 76 completely destroyed... 20,000 Jews were arrested, 36
deaths were reported and those seriously injured were also
numbered at 36..."
The extent of the destruction was actually greater than reported.
Later estimates were that as many as 7,500 Jewish shops were
looted, and there were several incidents of rape. This, in the
twisted ideology of Nazism, was worse than murder, because the
racial laws forbade intercourse between Jews and gentiles. The
rapists were expelled from the Nazi Party and handed over to the
police for prosecution. And those who killed Jews? They "cannot
be punished," according to authorities, because they were merely
following orders.
To add insult to massive injury, those Jews who survived the
monstrous pogrom were forced to pay for the damage inflicted upon
them. Insurance firms teetered on the verge of bankruptcy because
of the claims. Hermann Goering came up with a solution: Insurance
money due the victims was to be confiscated by the state, and
part of the money would revert back to the insurance companies to
keep them afloat.
The reaction around the world was one of revulsion at the
barbarism into which Germany was sinking. As far as Hitler was
concerned, this only proved the extent of the "Jewish world
conspiracy."
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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