19505_HMD_Cover:Layout 1 - Holocaust Education Trust Ireland

Kristallnacht, November Pogrom
Holocaust Memorial Day 2013
In response to the assassination of vom Rath, the
Nazis launched the November pogrom known as
Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, on 9/10 November
1938.
During the night of violence against the Jews of Germany
and Austria, 7,500 Jewish shops were wrecked and
their windows smashed – leaving the streets strewn with
glass. Hundreds of synagogues, Jewish homes, schools
and businesses were destroyed and set ablaze. Ninety-one
Jews were murdered, and approximately 30,000 Jewish
men were thrown into concentration camps.
The Jewish communities of Germany were fined 1 billion
Reichsmarks to pay for the damage!
After Kristallnacht, the Nazis considered plans for the
Jews, such as confining them in ghettos, but finally decided
to get them out of the economy and out of the
country. Jewish businesses were sold far below their market
value, employers were urged to sack their Jewish employees,
and offices were set up to speed emigration.
Torched Synagogue, Germany, November 1938
Kindertransports
worked together to find Jewish and gentile foster homes
for the children. Funds were raised, guarantors were
found. Some of the children were housed in boarding
schools, farms, castles, holiday camps – anywhere they
were accepted.
Although most of the Kindertransport children were
rescued, most of them never saw their families again.
Kindertransport child, Yad Vashem
Prompted by the events of Kristallnacht, Britain
agreed to accept some 10,000 Jewish children from
Nazi-occupied lands.
Between December 1938 and September 1939,
Britain accepted approximately 10,000 children from
Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland. They
arrived on special trains via Holland called Kindertransports.
Jewish and Christian voluntary organisations
Winton children
Nicholas Winton
Londoner
Nicholas
Winton
arranged for eight
kinderstransports
to bring 669
children from
Czechoslovakia to
safety in Britain.
For 50 years
no one knew
about his assistance
to so many
children during
the war. It was
only when his
wife found an old
leather briefcase full of lists of the children and letters
from their parents that the story began to unfold. Since
then, Winton has been reunited with hundreds of ‘his’
children and was awarded the Freedom of the City of
Prague in 1998 and knighted by Queen Elisabeth in 2002.
It is estimated that there are 5,000 Winton children living
around the world.
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