Crystal Night
~Lyn Lifshin
windows slashed
like skin pulled
tight frozen with a
stone slammed through
it smashed blue
glass crystal a
whole lake of ice
a plane crashes
into smashed
tea cups bowl of
glass glass
shattering in the
night something like
a mirror walked
into they came beat
people up blue
jars the glass piled
in an alley calf
deep. All night the
sound of ice in
the branches poking
holes in the roof
A warning stained
glass from the
synagogues slashed
plum peach cherry
frosting over in
the chill November
light an arm
torn bleeding
a whole family
in shards and this
is just the beginning
~Lyn Lifshin
windows slashed
like skin pulled
tight frozen with a
stone slammed through
it smashed blue
glass crystal a
whole lake of ice
a plane crashes
into smashed
tea cups bowl of
glass glass
shattering in the
night something like
a mirror walked
into they came beat
people up blue
jars the glass piled
in an alley calf
deep. All night the
sound of ice in
the branches poking
holes in the roof
A warning stained
glass from the
synagogues slashed
plum peach cherry
frosting over in
the chill November
light an arm
torn bleeding
a whole family
in shards and this
is just the beginning
Historical info
November 9th to November 10th of 1938. There was an incident in Germany called "Kristallnacht" (Night of Broken Glass) that the Nazis caused. They vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses. They killed over 100 Jews in the process. After it was all over, 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to Concentration camps. German Jews have been held repressed against policies since 1933, when Adolf Hitler became the leader of Germany. Before the incident, the policies have been usually nonviolent. But afterwards they have gotten harsh and cruel. During WWII the Nazis put in their "Final Solution" to solve the "Jewish Problem" and carried out murders of over 6 million European Jews which came to be the Holocaust.
November 15th, 1938. Franklin D. Roosevelt responded to the incident called "Kristallnacht" by stating to the media that he majorly hated the anti-Semitism and violence in Germany. He sent Hugh Wilson (his ambassador) to Germany. Even though Roosevelt disliked the Nazi violence. He refused to ease the hold upon the immigration restrictions that were stopping Jews to come to America freely. The reason being is that he was afraid that Nazis would attempt to settle in North America freely and legally. Another reason was the anti- Semitic views within the government.
Kristallnacht also changed the ways of persecution from economic, politcal and social to physical. It is seen as the true start to the Holocaust. "Kristallnacht came... and everything was changed" Max Rein, 1988. But to this day Kristallnacht is seen as a horrendously cruel and an example of what a country shouldn't do to its people. With bands playing tributes as well as naming songs after Kristallnacht for them to remind people how horrid the issue was.
November 15th, 1938. Franklin D. Roosevelt responded to the incident called "Kristallnacht" by stating to the media that he majorly hated the anti-Semitism and violence in Germany. He sent Hugh Wilson (his ambassador) to Germany. Even though Roosevelt disliked the Nazi violence. He refused to ease the hold upon the immigration restrictions that were stopping Jews to come to America freely. The reason being is that he was afraid that Nazis would attempt to settle in North America freely and legally. Another reason was the anti- Semitic views within the government.
Kristallnacht also changed the ways of persecution from economic, politcal and social to physical. It is seen as the true start to the Holocaust. "Kristallnacht came... and everything was changed" Max Rein, 1988. But to this day Kristallnacht is seen as a horrendously cruel and an example of what a country shouldn't do to its people. With bands playing tributes as well as naming songs after Kristallnacht for them to remind people how horrid the issue was.
Nazis Perspective
"Kristallnacht – the Night of the Broken Glass – was the Nazi government’s response to the murder, on November 7th 1938, in Paris of Ernst von Rath, a diplomat in the German embassy in the city. Von Rath was murdered by Herschel Grynszpan, a young Jew and the Nazis used this as the excuse they needed in Nazi Germany to unleash a night of violence against the whole of the Jewish community within Germany. Joseph Goebbels claimed that the murder of von Rath was just a small part of a much wider conspiracy against the Nazis by international Jews. Kristallnacht started on the night of November 9th. All over Nazi Germany synagogues were targeted along with the remaining Jewish shops and stores. A recorded conversation/discussion between Reinhard Heydrich, Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Goering in the aftermath of Kristallnacht gives some idea as to what the Nazi hierarchy wanted out of the event.
Heydrich: In almost all cities synagogues are burned. New, various possibilities exist to utilize the space where the synagogues once stood. Some cities want to build parks in their place; others want to put up new buildings.
Goering: How many synagogues were actually burned?
Heydrich: Altogether there were 101 synagogues destroyed by fire, 76 synagogues demolished and 7,500 stores ruined in the Reich.
Goering: What do you mean, “destroyed by fire”?
Heydrich: Partly they are razed, and partly gutted.
Goebbels: I am of the opinion that this is our chance to dissolve the synagogues. All those not completely intact shall be razed by the Jews. The Jews shall pay for it. There in Berlin, the Jews are ready to do that. The synagogues that were burned in Berlin are being leveled by the Jews themselves. We shall build parking lots in their place or new buildings. That ought to be the criterion for the whole country, the Jews shall have to remove the damaged or burned synagogues, and shall have to provide us with ready free space.
In the immediate aftermath of Kristallnacht, the Jewish community was required to pay for the damage. They were fined 1 billion Reichsmarks (about $400,000,000) on November 12th and they were not allowed to make any insurance claims for damage to property. 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps where many were to die. Any Jewish business that had somehow survived the violence was not allowed to re-open under Jewish management, but had to have a ‘true’ German in charge of it.
Those who had the money now realized that they had to leave the country, but in doing so they had to leave everything behind which was then taken by the Nazi government. Kristallnacht had set a very clear marker as to what the Jews who remained in Nazi Germany could expect in the future."
Heydrich: In almost all cities synagogues are burned. New, various possibilities exist to utilize the space where the synagogues once stood. Some cities want to build parks in their place; others want to put up new buildings.
Goering: How many synagogues were actually burned?
Heydrich: Altogether there were 101 synagogues destroyed by fire, 76 synagogues demolished and 7,500 stores ruined in the Reich.
Goering: What do you mean, “destroyed by fire”?
Heydrich: Partly they are razed, and partly gutted.
Goebbels: I am of the opinion that this is our chance to dissolve the synagogues. All those not completely intact shall be razed by the Jews. The Jews shall pay for it. There in Berlin, the Jews are ready to do that. The synagogues that were burned in Berlin are being leveled by the Jews themselves. We shall build parking lots in their place or new buildings. That ought to be the criterion for the whole country, the Jews shall have to remove the damaged or burned synagogues, and shall have to provide us with ready free space.
In the immediate aftermath of Kristallnacht, the Jewish community was required to pay for the damage. They were fined 1 billion Reichsmarks (about $400,000,000) on November 12th and they were not allowed to make any insurance claims for damage to property. 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps where many were to die. Any Jewish business that had somehow survived the violence was not allowed to re-open under Jewish management, but had to have a ‘true’ German in charge of it.
Those who had the money now realized that they had to leave the country, but in doing so they had to leave everything behind which was then taken by the Nazi government. Kristallnacht had set a very clear marker as to what the Jews who remained in Nazi Germany could expect in the future."
Amazing story of a man
"On the night of Nov. 9, 1938, and into the next morning, the Night of Broken Glass — Kristallnacht — swept across Germany and Austria. In those two days, 250 synagogues burned, 7,000 Jewish businesses were looted and countless Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, schools and homes were destroyed. Fire brigades stood by and watched buildings go up in flames. Dozens of Jewish people were killed, and after dawn broke 30,000 Jewish men were rounded up by the Nazis and sent to concentration camps.
Still, across Europe and in the United States, many political leaders and their citizenry considered Hitler a buffoon, cartoonish and incapable of carrying out his plan to annihilate Europe's Jews.
In England, Barbara Winton's stockbroker father took Hitler seriously. Nicholas Winton had read Hitler's two-volume biographical manifesto, Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"). He had Jewish relatives who'd fled Germany. He read newspaper reports about Kristallnacht. He was convinced he had to act to get the children of Hitler's enemies to England.
He would set up his own immigration and child service agencies, resorting to forgery to get children out as war approached. He raised money and recruited foster parents in England for each child. His efforts saved 669 Jewish children — Renata Laxova among them — from certain death in Hitler's ovens."-
Still, across Europe and in the United States, many political leaders and their citizenry considered Hitler a buffoon, cartoonish and incapable of carrying out his plan to annihilate Europe's Jews.
In England, Barbara Winton's stockbroker father took Hitler seriously. Nicholas Winton had read Hitler's two-volume biographical manifesto, Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"). He had Jewish relatives who'd fled Germany. He read newspaper reports about Kristallnacht. He was convinced he had to act to get the children of Hitler's enemies to England.
He would set up his own immigration and child service agencies, resorting to forgery to get children out as war approached. He raised money and recruited foster parents in England for each child. His efforts saved 669 Jewish children — Renata Laxova among them — from certain death in Hitler's ovens."-
Works Cited
- Poem- mrsprimm.weebly.com/uploads/3/7/5/.../holocaust_poem_group_2.docx Lifshin, Lyn. Crystal Night. Missprimm.weebly.com. N.p., n.d. Web.
- Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynypuxgCbH4 "Goebbels en Kristallnacht" YouTube. YouTube, n.d. 19 Dec. 2010. Web. 22 Jan. 2015.
- Information- http://www.history.com/topics/kristallnacht , http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/kristallnacht_1938.htm "Kristallnacht." History.com. A&E Television Network. 2011. Web "Kristallnacht". HistoryLearningSite.co.uk. 2014. Web.
- Page of document- http://leobaeck.oxfordjournals.org/content/32/1/309.extract "Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook." The Kristallnacht as a Public Degradation Ritual. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2015.
- Top two pictures- http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/media_list.php?MediaType=PH Photographs of Holocaust and the Kristallnacht. Digital image.United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d. Web.
- Man who saved children from the war having a honorable reunion- http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/09/hearing-breaking-glass/18781331/ Curnutte, Mark. "Reunion Honors Stockbroker Who Saved 669 Children." Editorial. USA Today 9 Nov. 2014: n. pag. Reunion Honors Stockbroker Who Saved 669 Children. Gannett Satellite Information Network, Inc., 9 Nov. 2014. Web. 21 Jan. 2015.