The Night of Broken Glass

November 9th 1938 is widely seen as a violent turning point in Nazi Germany s assault on the Jews. An estimated 400 Jews lost their lives in the anti-Semitic pogrom and more than 30,000 were imprisoned or sent to concentration camps, where many were brutally mistreated. Thousands more fled their homelands in Germany and Austria, shocked by what they had seen, heard and experienced. What they took with them was not only the pain of saying farewell but also the memory of terrible scenes: attacks by mobs of drunken Nazis, public humiliations, burning synagogues, inhuman conditions in overcrowded prison cells and concentration camp barracks. The reactions of neighbours and passersby to these barbarities ranged from sympathy and aid to scorn, mockery, and abuse. In 1939 the Harvard sociologist Edward Hartshorne gathered eyewitness accounts of the Kristallnacht from hundreds of Jews who had fled, but Hartshorne joined the Secret Service shortly afterwards and the accounts he gathered were forgotten until now. These eyewitness testimonies published here for the first time with a Foreword by Saul Friedl nder, the Pulitzer Prize historian and Holocaust survivor paint a harrowing picture of everyday violence in one of Europe s darkest moments. This unique and disturbing document will be of great interest to anyone interested in modern history, Nazi Germany and the historical experience of the Jews.

November 9th 1938 is widely seen as a violent turning point in Nazi Germany's assault on the Jews. An estimated 400 Jews lost their lives in the anti-Semitic pogrom and more than 30,000 were imprisoned or sent to concentration camps, where many were brutally mistreated. Thousands more fled their homelands in Germany and Austria, shocked by what they had seen, heard and experienced. What they took with them was not only the pain of saying farewell but also the memory of terrible scenes: attacks by mobs of drunken Nazis, public humiliations, burning synagogues, inhuman conditions in overcrowded prison cells and concentration camp barracks. The reactions of neighbours and passersby to these barbarities ranged from sympathy and aid to scorn, mockery, and abuse.In 1939 the Harvard sociologist Edward Hartshorne gathered eyewitness accounts of the Kristallnacht from hundreds of Jews who had fled, but Hartshorne joined the Secret Service shortly afterwards and the accounts he gathered were forgotten - until now. These eyewitness testimonies - published here for the first time with a Foreword by Saul Friedländer, the Pulitzer Prize historian and Holocaust survivor - paint a harrowing picture of everyday violence in one of Europe's darkest moments.This unique and disturbing document will be of great interest to anyone interested in modern history, Nazi Germany and the historical experience of the Jews.

Editorial Note and Acknowledgements viiForeword Saul Friedländer xIntroduction Thomas Karlauf: Thus Ended My Life in Germany' 1Part I The Terror 17Hugo Moses 19Siegfried Merecki 36Rudolf Bing 56Toni Lessler 65Sofoni Herz 72'Aralk' 82Marie Kahle 88Part II In The Camps 93Karl E. Schwabe 95Gertrud Wickerhauser Lederer 110Karl Rosenthal 115Georg Abraham 135Hertha Nathorff 148Carl Hecht 165Ernst Bellak 174Part III Before Emigration 179Martin Freudenheim 181Alice Bärwald 183Siegfried Wolff 187Margarete Neff 194Fritz Rodeck 208Fritz Goldberg 228Harry Kaufman 231Afterword Uta Gerhardt: Nazi Madness 236Notes 261Bibliography 275