Above: Funeral of Ernst vom Rath (1909-1938), a German diplomat assassinated in Paris in 1938 by a 17-year-old exiled Jew, Herschel Grynszpan. The assassination triggered attack on German Jews. Photo licensed to War History Network. Click to enlarge.

Left: Berlin, Germany. 10 November 1938: Windows of a Jewish owned printing business smashed during Kristallnacht. Photo licensed to War History Network. Click to expand.

Following the assassination of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath at the German embassy in Paris by Hirsch Grynszpan on the 8th of November, 1938, violence in all forms befell the 300,00 Jews across Germany. Jewish-owned shops were destroyed, their homes looted and burned, and innocents were murdered, as Hitler and the Nazi Party saw this as a "Jewish-inspired world conspiracy against Germany." (Gilbert, 1985. p. 69) The streets and sidwalks were riddled with glass from the storefronts of Jewish-owned shops. Thus the phrase "Kristallnacht," German for broken glass. 

Hirsch Grynszpan, a Jewish student living in Paris, upon hearing of his family's expulsion from Germany and brutal treatment of all Jews throuout 1938, went to the German embassy in Paris and "shot the first German official who received him, Ernst vom Rath." (Gilbert, 1985. pp. 66-68) 

Multimedia: Video, Web, Photo, and Discussion
Video: From The Atlantic: Holocaust Survivors Remember Kristallnacht  | 

Website and webpages: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: Kristallnacht

Discussion: D-Day and the War in Europe

For additional reading
The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War, authored by historian Martin Gilbert. First published in 1985, the landmark work is still in print today.