Also known as Crystal Night or “the Night of Broken Glass,” Kristallnacht was a pogrom carried out against Jews throughout Nazi Germany on the 9th and 10th of November, 1938. The state-sanctioned violence left Jewish-owned stores, schools, homes, and synagogues ransacked and smashed, filling the streets of Jewish neighborhoods with glass that gave the terrible attacks their name. Over 267 synagogues and 7,000 Jewish businesses were destroyed, and upwards of 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and taken to concentration camps.
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Kristallnacht Term Timeline in The Plot Against America
The timeline below shows where the term Kristallnacht appears in The Plot Against America. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: Vote for Lindbergh or Vote for War
...the most terrible year for European Jews in nearly 2 millennia—it was the year of Kristallnacht, the most terrible pogrom (organized massacre) in modern history. 1938 was also the year when...
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Chapter 7: The Winchell Riots
...many of Detroit’s 30,000 Jews have fled to Ontario—America’s first large-scale pogrom, comparable to Germany’s Kristallnacht, is complete.
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