Why was Kristallnacht seen as a turning point in the persecution of the Jews in Germany?

Nazi Violence & Hatred Unleashed: Kristallnacht (1938)

Ø 9-10 November 1938: Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass). Nazi ordered & sponsored violence directed at Jews in Germany & parts of Austria on a massive scale. The pretext for the attacks was the assassination, at the German Embassy in Paris, of the 29 year old German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by 17 year old Herschel Grynszpan, a German-born Polish Jew living in Paris. Ernst vom Rath, a former SA member, was shot on 7 November and died two days later.

Ø During the violence carried out by SA paramilitary and civilians, at least 91 Jews were killed in the attacks, and 30,000 were arrested and placed in concentration camps (where another 2,000 were killed). Jewish homes, hospitals, and schools were ransacked, as the attackers demolished buildings with sledgehammers. Over 1,000 synagogues were burned, and over 7,000 Jewish businesses destroyed or damaged.

Ø On 11 November German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels publically attributed the events of Kristallnacht to the "healthy instincts" of the German people. He went on to explain: "The German people are anti-Semitic. It has no desire to have its rights restricted or to be provoked in the future by parasites of the Jewish race."

Ø Front-page headline & story of New York Times, 11 November 1938: Nazis Smash, Loot and Burn Jewish Shops and Temples Until Goebbels Calls Halt.

Ø The violence created international outrage against Germany, the Nazis & Hitler. The United States recalled its ambassador (but did not break off diplomatic relations) while other governments severed diplomatic relations with Germany in protest.

Ø Kristallnacht marked a turning point in relations between Nazi Germany and the rest of the world. The Nazi government's encouragement of the violence & brutality, publically exposed the despotic nature of widespread anti-Semitism entrenched in Germany, and this turned most world opinion sharply against the Nazi regime.

Ø Kristallnacht changed the nature of persecution from economic, political, and social to the physical with beatings, incarceration, and murder; the event is often referred to as the beginning of the Holocaust.

Ø The number of emigrating Jews surged. In the ten months following Kristallnacht, more than 115,000 Jews emigrated from Germany & Austria to other European countries, the US and to Palestine.

Ø The Nazis achieved in Kristallnacht many of their objectives: confiscation of Jewish belongings to provide finances for Nazi Party members and the bribery of top military leaders, separation and isolation of the Jews, and most importantly, the intensification of anti-Semitic policy to add officially-sanctioned physical violence, beginning that night and continuing until the end of World War II.