How was Kristallnacht carried out, and who was involved? |
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The town of Zeven, Germany, had 2,500 inhabitants in 1938, 28 of them Jews. On November 10, 1938, under Gestapo orders, the synagogue in Zeven was forcibly emptied and the furnishings publicly burned at the town's main square. A photographer captured this event. |
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| Zeven was one small town among thousands of towns and cities in Germany where Jewish-owned property was destroyed and Jewish people were attacked and humiliated during Kristallnacht. One of the larger cities where the Kristallnacht riots took place was Baden-Baden. |  |
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As was the case in Zeven, the events of Kristallnacht in Baden-Baden were captured on film. The synagogue and its furnishings were destroyed and Jewish men in the city were arrested with many sent to concentration camps. The arrested men were paraded through the streets of Baden-Baden and forced to recite passages from Hitler's Mein Kampf, Der Stuermer, and other antisemitic writings at the pulpit of the synagogue before it was destroyed. |
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Questions to consider when taking a closer look at the photographs from Zeven and Baden-Baden.
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