Kristallnacht

November 9, 2009 ~ 7:00 p.m.
Lewis and Shirley White Theatre
Jewish Community Campus
5801 West 115th Street
Overland Park, Kansas

Seventy-one years ago on November 9 and 10, Kristallnacht (the “Night of Broken Glass”), an anti-Jewish pogrom devised by Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s minister for propaganda and public enlightenment, was carried out by the SS and other national police agencies. Jewish businesses were vandalized and homes ransacked and burned. At least 100 Jews were murdered and 30,000 Jewish men were imprisoned in concentration camps. Kristallnacht ended the illusion that normal Jewish life in Germany and Austria was still possible.

This year’s community-wide commemoration of Kristallnacht will showcase the documentary film Kristallnacht, newly produced for MCHE’s Witnesses to the Holocaust series. The film describes the rise of Hitler and the Nazis and the emergence of increasingly brutal policies toward Germany’s Jews that culminated in the violence of November 9-10, 1938. It features excerpts from MCHE’s videotaped survivor testimonies along with archival and personal photos.

Resources:
Kristallnacht Order
USHMM collection
USHMM online exhibition
Primary Source Documents
It Came From Within...71 Years Since Kristallnacht