Download Kristallnacht: The History and Legacy of Nazi Germany's Most Notorious Pogrom AudioBook Free
"It did not take a long time before the first heavy grey stones came up tumbling down, and the children of the town amused themselves as they flung rocks into the many-colored windows. When the first rays of a frigid and pale November sunshine penetrated the heavy, dark clouds, the tiny synagogue was but a heap of rock, broken a glass, and smashed-up woodwork." (Eric Lucas' explanation of the damage of a synagogue during Kristallnacht) In the 40th wedding anniversary of Kristallnacht, Germany's night of broken a glass, then-chancellor of Germany, Helmut Schmidt, spoke of its legacy: "The German night, whose observance following the passage of 40 years has taken us collectively today, remains a reason behind bitterness and pity. In those places where in fact the homes of God stood in flames, in which a sign from those in power set off a teach of damage and robbery - of humiliation, abduction, and incarceration - there is a finish to peacefulness, to justice, to mankind. The night time of 9 November, 1938, proclaimed one of the periods along the road leading down to hell." The hell that Schmidt spoke of was the persecution and attempted reduction of the Jewish people from Europe itself, as envisioned by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi authority, whom he brought to power in Germany during the 1930s. On the night time of November 9, 1938, an sorted out show of push against Jewish businesses and private homes happened throughout German metropolitan areas and just lately annexed territories in Austria and the Sudetenland. This night would make a turning point in the lives of not only Jews but everyone of that time period, marking a definite new route of violence, damage, and persecution for Jews throughout Europe in the years to follow.
