Remembering the horror of Kristallnackht 1938, "The Night of Broken Glass" in Germany

On November 9–10, 1938, Nazi leaders unleashed a series of pogroms against the Jewish population in Germany and recently incorporated territories. This event came to be called Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) because of the shattered glass that littered the streets after the vandalism and destruction of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, and homes. 

Kristallnacht owes its name to the shards of shattered glass that lined German streets in the wake of the pogrom—broken glass from the windows of synagogues, homes, and Jewish-owned businesses plundered and destroyed during the violence.

Echo report published in Jewish Telegraphic Agency:
On the 86th anniversary of Kristallnacht—the pogroms against Jews carried out by Nazis in Germany and Austria. For Jewish Telegraphic Agency, scholar Michael Berenbaum describes why attacks on synagogues in particular were so horrific: “By attacking the synagogue, the Nazis were attacking not only the heart and soul of the Jewish community, but they were also attacking the institution that was responding to the unfolding catastrophe.

Under Nazism and the imposition of increasingly stringent laws excluding Jews from institutions of everyday life, the synagogue became the replacement for those now-verboten institutions. On Monday it might become a theater because Jewish actors could not perform on the German stage. 

On Tuesday it became a symphony hall as Jewish musicians were dismissed from German orchestras. On Wednesday it became an opera house, because opera singers needed a place to earn a living.

During the day, the synagogue served as a school for Jewish children expelled from German schools. Their teachers were often professors, writers and artists struggling to survive in a new world. The art teacher might be a world class artist, the music instructor, a concert pianist. The Jewish school was the safest place for a Jewish child; yet the most dangerous part of the student’s day was walking to and from school. Harassment was routine, bullying was accepted, violence was sanctioned. Teachers turned their backs even when they did not overly encourage the violence.”

Maine Writer post script:  For what it is worth in retrospect,  following Kristallnacht, Pope Pius XI, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church at the time, publicly condemned the pogrom, joining Western leaders in voicing criticism against the Nazi violence against Jews; this condemnation marked a significant public stance against the Nazi regime's actions. Nevertheless, as a Roman Catholic woman, I am unaware of any widespread formal effort to combat an expansion of Hitler's antisemitism campaign.