The Night of Broken Glass, or Kristallnacht, was a wave of violent attacks against Jewish people, coordinated by the Nazi regime on November 9–10, 1938.

Nazi Party paramilitary groups and Hitler Youth carried out the attacks, but countless ordinary Germans watched and even participated.

My grandfather was a rabbi. Although he had already emigrated from Hungary at the the turn of the century, my mom assured me that it most definitely COULD happen again and that’s why we should never forget.

From The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: 

On November 9–10, 1938, the Nazis staged vicious pogroms—state sanctioned, anti-Jewish riots—against the Jewish community of Germany.

These came to be known as Kristallnacht (now commonly translated as “Night of Broken Glass”), a reference to the untold numbers of broken windows of synagogues, Jewish-owned stores, community centers, and homes plundered and destroyed during the pogroms.

Encouraged by the Nazi regime, the rioters burned or destroyed 267 synagogues, vandalized or looted 7,500 Jewish businesses, killed at least 91 Jewish people, and 30,000 Jews were “arrested” and sent to camps.

They also damaged many Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, schools, and homes as police and fire brigades stood aside and offered no help.

Kristallnacht was a turning point in history. The pogroms marked an intensification of Nazi anti-Jewish policy that would culminate in the Holocaust—the systematic, state-sponsored murder of Jews.

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
-Dylan Thomas