Kristallnacht

Today in History 11/09 (Kristallnacht)

Pedestrians glance at the broken windows of a Jewish-owned shop in Berlin after the attacks of Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938 (© Universal History Archive/Getty Images)(1938) Nazis launch ‘Kristallnacht’ terror campaign
Nazis attack Jews and loot and burn their businesses and synagogues in a coordinated and widespread campaign throughout Germany and Austria. The event, later known as ‘Kristallnacht’ or the ‘the night of broken glass,’ will portend an even greater horror, the Holocaust.
Kristallnacht or Reichskristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, Reichspogromnacht or simply Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom against Jews throughout Nazi Germany on 9–10 November 1938, carried out by SA paramilitary forces and German civilians. The German authorities looked on without intervening. The name Kristallnacht comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after the windows of Jewish-owned stores, buildings, and synagogues were smashed.
Start date: Nov 09, 1938
End date: Nov 10, 1938
Location: Free City of Danzig
Target: Jewish people
Attack type: Pogrom, looting, arson, mass murder, state terrorism
Deaths: 91+

Interior of Berlin's Fasanenstrasse Synagogue, opened in 1912, after it was set on fire during Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938. It was destroyed entirely during an Allied air raid on Berlin in 1943, and a Jewish Community Center was opened in its place in 1959
The interior of the Fasanenstrasse Synagogue in Berlin after Kristallnacht
wiki/Kristallnacht
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(1938) Nazis launch ‘Kristallnacht’ terror campaign.
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Today in History 11/09/17

West Berliners crowd in front of the Berlin Wall in November, 1989, as they watch East German border guards demolish a section of the wall (© Gerard Malie/AFP/Getty Images)(1989) East Germany lets the Berlin Wall come down
East German officials have bowed to pressure and lifted travel restrictions to the West. Thousands of Berliners from both sides swarm the wall and cheer the destruction of the 12-foot high barrier that had separated them for over 30 years.
The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Constructed by the German Democratic Republic, starting on 13 August 1961, the Wall completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until government officials opened it in November 1989. Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and finished in 1992. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, accompanied by a wide area that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc portrayed the Wall as protecting its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that had marked East Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period.
Address: Bernauer Straße 111, Berlin
Phone: 030 3087770
Construction started: Aug 13, 1961
Destroyed: Nov 09, 1989

Berlin-wall-map
Map of the Berlin Wall, showing checkpoints.

wiki/Berlin_Wall
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