Visit the immersive learning environment Witnessing History:
Kristallnacht - The November 1938 Pogroms in the virtual world
of Second Life. 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, and killed at least 91 Jewish people.
They also damaged many Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, schools,
and homes as police and fire brigades stood aside. 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.