Kristallnacht and Deportations to the Dachau Concentration Camp

Nils H. Roemer, Director, Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies
Katie Fisher, Research Assistant, Belofsky Fellow
Sarthak Khanna, Information Technology Management
Angie Simmons, Research Assistant, Belofsky Fellow
Siddhant Somani, Business Analytics

On the night of November 9, 1938, an attack was carried out by Nazis in which Jewish businesses, synagogues, and other buildings were destroyed. This attack against the Jewish communities of Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland also saw the harassment, injury, and murder of countless innocent Jews. Although it is referred to as “Kristallnacht,” or “the Night of Broken Glass,” the nature of the violence and destruction leveled at the Jewish community means that a more apt description would be the November pogrom. Within a year, Germany would invade Poland and the nightmare of deportations and death would ensue.

The events were set into motion in October of 1938, when thousands of Jews were arrested by Nazi officials and sent to the Polish border for deportation. Poland, however, refused to accept them; therefore, these Jews were forced to remain in makeshift encampments along the German-Polish border for several weeks. Among them were the parents of 17-year-old Herschel Grynszpan, a Polish Jew, who seeing the suffering his parents were made to endure, was compelled to enter the German embassy in Paris and shoot German diplomat Ernst vom Rath on November 7th. Rath died of his injuries two days later inciting a violent retaliation against Jews.

The death of vom Rath coincided with the anniversary of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, an important date in the Nazi calendar that the Nazi Party leadership had assembled in Munich to commemorate. It was at this gathering that it was decided that vom Rath’s death was a convenient catalyst for a “spontaneous” uprising against Jews. Under the orders of the highest Nazi officials, an attack was planned and orchestrated to appear spontaneous in nature, coming from the German people rather than the Nazi high command. Beginning on the night of November 9th and continuing into the early hours of the 10th, synagogues were burned, businesses were smashed and looted, Jews were pulled from their homes to be beaten and harassed, and Jewish men were rounded up and arrested by the thousands.

Kristallnacht was a turning point for Jews living in the Third Reich. Though it was evident that their lives and livelihood were under threat from the Nazis, this attack erased any doubt that their lives were in danger. Though violence and deportation were not new to the Jewish community, the November pogrom marked a turning point that brought the Nazis’ destructive intentions out into the light and made clear that the worst was yet to come.

The data collected on deportations in 1938 suggests that although the violence of the 1938 pogrom was unique, the arrests and deportations occurred in large quantities throughout the entire year. This particular data set focuses primarily on men who were deported to Dachau in 1938. From the data gathered from the Dachau prisoner logs, it is made evident that arrests and deportations had been occurring in far greater numbers, particularly in Vienna following its annexation by Germany, in the spring and summer of 1938. In fact, June of 1938 saw a dramatic rise in arrests and deportations to Dachau. This was largely due to a program instituted by Heinrich Himmler, targeting what was referred to as the Arbeitsscheue. This designation, which means “work-shy” or “indolent,” includes men of working age who had either rejected job offers or who quit after a short period of time. These men were arrested and deported to both Dachau and Buchenwald beginning almost immediately after the annexation of Austria in March of 1938, but in the highest numbers in June of that same year.

The data does show, however, that the second largest incidence of deportations in 1938 did occur in November following the events of the 1938 pogrom. Though not as high as the numbers seen in June, deportations occurred in the thousands according to the data set. In both cases, men of middle age seemed to be the primary target. The historical record reflects this and so too does the data.

Although many of the men arrested were set free after a few months, the Nazis had sent a clear message through their actions that Jews within the Reich were no longer safe. After the events of November 1938, many Jewish families attempted to flee Nazi-controlled lands, but tight restrictions on immigration in Europe and the United States prevented safe escape for many. Eventually, they would find themselves right back at the camps with no hope for release.