Arts & Culture

"These things come in waves": Kristallnacht in 1938 and where we are 80 years later

The North 103.3 | By Lisa Johnson

Published November 13, 2019 at 10:35 AM CST

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SS guards force Jews, arrested during Kristallnacht (the "Night of Broken Glass"), to march through the town of Baden-Baden. Onlookers watch from along the street and walls. Baden-Baden, Germany. November 10, 1938

Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/US Holocaust Memorial Museum

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Interior of a synagogue destroyed during Kristallnacht (the "Night of Broken Glass"). Dortmund, Germany, November 1938.

Stadtarchiv Dortmund/US Holocaust Memorial Museum

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A private Jewish home vandalized during Kristallnacht (the "Night of Broken Glass" pogrom). Vienna, Austria, November 10, 1938.

Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/US Holocaust Memorial Museum

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A group of young boys pose on and next to the demolished vehicle of local Jewish teacher Ferdinand Stern. The car had been driven to a nearby lake and set on fire during Kristallnacht. Frankenberg, Germany, November 1938.

Horst Hecker/US Holocaust Memorial Museum

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Roll call for newly arrived prisoners, mostly Jews arrested during Kristallnacht (the "Night of Broken Glass" pogrom), at the Buchenwald concentration camp. Buchenwald, Germany, 1938.

US Holocaust Memorial Museum

On November 9 and 10, 1938, the anti-Jewish restrictions and propaganda that had been smoldering since 1933 burst into violent flame with Kristallnacht, the "Night of Broken Glass."

And although it has become commonplace to invoke the Holocaust as a metaphor in many kinds of discourse, there are disturbing similarities between the culture that evolved from prejudice and antisemitism to silence in the face of 11 million people killed.

The Baeumler-Kaplan Holocaust Memorial Lecture Series at UMD was established "to remember, with dignity, the lives and sufferings of the victims and to encourage change through the dissemination of truth, justice, and peace."

More information about Kristallnacht and the Holocaust, including exhibitions, collections, academic research, and information about genocide prevention, antisemitism and Holocaust denial is available at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.