November 9, 1938

Kristallnacht

Nazi leaders unleash the Kristallnacht pogrom

At 1:20 a.m., police received written orders not to stop the "demonstrations" and to arrest healthy, affluent Jewish men.

9 November 1938: a death in Paris, a decision in Munich

At approximately 5:30 p.m. on 9 November 1938, Nazi leaders gathered in Munich learned that the diplomat Ernst vom Rath had died of wounds inflicted two days earlier by Herschel Grynszpan, a seventeen-year-old Polish Jewish refugee.

After conferring, Hitler and Joseph Goebbels decided to instigate a nationwide anti-Jewish pogrom. Around 9:30–10 p.m., Goebbels addressed the Nazi dignitaries, who telephoned instructions to party districts.

An internal Nazi Party report later acknowledged that officials understood the Party should conceal its role while actually organising and executing the "demonstrations".

Orders before midnight, and again at 1:20 a.m.

Before midnight, Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller ordered the arrest of 20,000–30,000 Jewish men. Through the night, SA, SS, Hitler Youth and other participants attacked Jewish people, homes, businesses and synagogues across Germany and its annexed territories.

At 1:20 a.m. on 10 November, Reinhard Heydrich ordered police not to hinder the violence, to protect non-Jewish property, and to arrest healthy Jewish men, especially affluent ones.

Firefighters were ordered to let synagogues burn and to intervene only if neighbouring property was endangered.

The pogrom's documented toll

By the morning of 10 November, synagogues were burning, Jewish homes and shops had been wrecked, and police were carrying out mass arrests. More than 1,400 synagogues were destroyed or severely damaged, and roughly 7,500 Jewish-owned businesses had their windows smashed and their goods looted. About 26,000 Jewish men were imprisoned in Dachau, Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen.

The regime formally called off the riot at 4 p.m. on 10 November, though some violence continued afterward. The Jewish community was then fined 1 billion Reichsmarks.

The often-repeated figure of 91 dead counts only those recorded as murdered during the pogrom itself; broader research, including deaths from wounds, medical crises, suicide and camp maltreatment, reaches hundreds.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources 2 audit passes

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

The November 9–10 dating and state direction are firmly documented.
The often-repeated figure of 91 counts people recorded as murdered during the pogrom itself; broader research includes later deaths from wounds, medical crises, suicide and camp maltreatment and reaches hundreds.
Older accounts counted 267 synagogues destroyed. Later research documents more than 1,400 synagogues destroyed or severely damaged.
USHMM’s current research gives about 26,000 men imprisoned in the three principal camps; “30,000 arrested” remains a common rounded figure that may include other detention.