Kristallnacht, also commonly referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, is what many historians consider to be the beginning of what would later be known as the Holocaust. Throughout the night of November 9, 1938 and into the early morning hours of November 10, 1938, brutal non-Jewish civilians and members of the SA, the "Brownshirts" of the Nazi Party, looted homes, hospitals and Jewish schools. The broken glass of the windows on the ground inspired the name Kristallnacht. But what triggered these tragic events? Many historians believe that it was the assassination of Ernst Von Rath on November 7, 1938, which caused the beginning of tensions. Von Rath, a German diplomat, was assassinated by Herschel Grynspan. Grynspan was a Polish Jew, born in Germany but living in Paris, France. To justify Von Rath's assassination, Grynspan said he was avenging the deaths of 12,000 Jews. But the real start of Kristallnacht itself came when Joseph Goebbles gave a provocative speech after Von Rath's funeral, saying he would not be surprised if the German people took the law into their own hands to avenge the death of Von Rath by destroying everything that was Jewish, namely synagogues, businesses and community centers. Almost instantly, Clausen 2, the German people and especially members of the Nazi Party took action by committing terrible acts of racial discrimination. According to Kristallnacht: A Nationwide Pogrom (ushmm.org), a total of 267 synagogues were decimated throughout Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland and more than 7,500 Jewish establishments had their windows broken by the SA and the Hitler Youth. Even though mass murder was not the goal, at the time of the events, 91 Jews died and approximately 30,000 Jewish men were arrested...... middle of paper ...... wishes to l 'Germany. Due to the idea of ​​"social Darwinism" and the growing interest in genetics, the anti-Semitic campaign took on a more racial tone. Suddenly, people were infatuated with the idea of ​​“racial purity.” The Germans considered the purest of these races to be the Aryans. After Germany's crushing defeat in World War I, the young Adolf Hitler wrote the ultimate anti-Semitic book Mein Kampf. Later, as chancellor of Germany, Hitler employed race theorists to justify his persecution of Jews and other races (Anti-Semitism in Germany: Historical Context; web.mnstate.edu). In conclusion, Von Rath's assassination may have triggered the start of Kristallnacht externally and served as a pretext to persecute Jews, but in reality, the already present anti-Semitic views towards the Germany were the real reason behind the start of the "Final". Solution.”