Crystal Night

Discover our online resources to share the story of this event with your students.

Nuit de Cristal website

The great synagogue of Berlin burned during the Night of Broken Glass, Berlin. Germany, 11/1938

Credits: Shoah Memorial

After five years of National Socialism, the leaders of the regime found that, despite threats and bullying, three-quarters of the Jewish population in the Reich chose to stay. The situation is all the more worrying since almost 200,000 Jews living in Austria fell under the authority of the Reich after the Anschluss. 1938 will be the year of a radicalization and an acceleration of anti-Semitic measures aimed at eliminating any Jewish presence, especially in the economy, and to encourage mass emigration. These legislative measures are accompanied by acts of violence, which will culminate in
the "Crystal Night".

Discover the site Nuit de Cristal

Historical study: Nuit de Cristal

Antisemitic inscriptions on shops belonging to Jews during the Nuit de Cristal, Germany, 10-11 November 1938

Credits: Shoah Memorial

Testimony of Hanna Ruth Klopstock

Young German Jewish girls taking refuge at the Château de la Guette in Villeneuve-sur-Comte (Seine-et-Marne). France, 1939

From left to right, standing: Ursula Matzdorff, Francisca Kellner, Gertrud Weihsman, unidentified person, Elfie Reiss, Zelna Cavala; from left to right, seated: Susie Guttman, Minnie Angle, Dita Weiss, Lotte Szampanier, unidentified person, Hanna Klopstock, Renate Tauber, Felicitas Beyt, Hilde Main and Dora Cavala

Hanna Ruth Klopstock was born on 07/02/1924 in Berlin, Germany. She grew up in a non-religious Jewish family of German origin. In the 1930s, anti-Semitism took root in the city. At school, Hanna was singled out and insulted by her classmates. His brother is regularly beaten. From 1931, the "Sturmabteilung" (SA), a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, prevented customers from accessing Jewish shops. Hanna’s father loses his job following the rise to power of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) on 19/08/1934. He was arrested during the anti-Semitic violence of Kristallnacht from 09 to 10/11/1938. He will not return. Evicted from her apartment, the family is forced to sell her furniture and sublet a two-room apartment to a Jewish family. The borders are gradually closing. It is impossible for them to escape. In Paris, the family of Edouard de Rothschild set up a safeguarding committee in the hope of raising 3,000 German Jewish children. Hanna was sent to the French capital on 20/03/1939 thanks to an association helping families in difficulty. Then began for her years of wandering and hidden life.

Excerpt from the testimony of Hanna Ruth Klopstock carried out in 2005 at the Shoah Memorial 

Find the full testimony of Hanna Ruth Klopstock 

Panel discussion: The Four Strokes of the Nuit de Cristal

 November 11, 2018

Autour des Quatre Coups de la Nuit de cristal, by Corinne Chaponnière, ed. Albin Michel, 2015. With The Four Strokes of the Crystal Night, the author leads us into a dizzying investigation around the gesture of Herschel Grynszpan who, at 17 years old, shoots Ernst vom Rath. This act will trigger ruthless retaliation and remain one of the most mysterious episodes of the pre-war era. In the presence of the author Corinne Chaponnière and Annette Wieviorka, historian, author of the preface of the book. Hosted by Norbert Czarny, literary critic, En attendant Nadeau.