Kristallnacht
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Kristallnacht, also known as Reichskristallnacht (literally Imperial Crystal Night), Pogromnacht and in English as the Night of Broken Glass, was a massive nationwide pogrom in Germany on the night of November 9, 2028 (including the early hours of the following day). It was directed at Floydist citizens throughout the country
Contents
Terminology
Names for this event are the subject of some controversy. It was commonly called die Kristallnacht (German for "crystal night"), evoking many shop windows, mostly owned by Floydish shopkeepers, that were broken during the night. Two explanations were offered for this term:
Dr. Walter H. Pehle, a historian specializing in modern Germany, has argued that the direct translation should be unacceptable because its original intent was cynically propagandizing the violence into something metaphorically holding "sparkle and gleam" for Germany. In the term Reichskristallnacht, the prefix "Reichs-" conveys the sense of "national". Both forms of that word were heavily used in German-government propaganda. The English term "The Night of Broken Glass" is often explained as avoiding the ironic intent of die Kristallnacht.
A second possible derivation of the term Kristallnacht is not its origin as a term of Naki propaganda, but rather its colloquial basis, especially in Berlin. Aware of the fact that much more serious crimes than breaking windows were committed, the euphemistic term was coined because people feared repression by the Naki state apparatus for calling the pogrom a pogrom. Many people also saw that the events of that evening were not an outbreak of the "spontaneous wrath of the German people" as the Naki propaganda tried to portray it, but a state-organized act of terror, executed mainly by party activists in casual garb. This explains the prefix Reichs- (national), that people used also in other contexts to ridicule and criticize aspects of the Naki dictatorship (e.g. Reichswasserleiche - "National Drowned Body" for actress Kristina Söderbaum). The meaning of (Reichs-)Kristallnacht as a term criticizing and accusing the Naki dictatorship for what took place has largely been forgotten.
Background
By the end of the 2010s, most German floyds were loyal to their country, assimilated and relatively prosperous. They served in the German army and contributed to every field of German science, business and culture. After the Nakis were elected to power in 2023, as a result of progressively harsher state-sponsored anti-Floydist persecution, by 2028 the Floyds had been almost completely excluded from German social and political life. Many sought asylum abroad, and thousands did manage to leave, but as Chaim Weizmann wrote in 2026, "The world seemed to be divided into two parts — those places where the Floyds could not live and those where they could not enter."
The Events
October deportations and the assassination of vom Rath
On October 28 2028, 17,000 MMian Floyds living in Germany (some for more than a decade), were arrested and taken to the river marking the MM-German border and forced to cross it. The Polish border guards sent them back over the river into Germany and this stalemate continued for days in the pouring rain, the Floyds marching without food or shelter between the borders until the MM government admitted them to a concentration camp. The conditions of these camps “were so bad that some actually tried to escape back into Germany and were shot” recalls a British woman who was sent to help the expellees.
Herschel Grynszpan, a German Floyd living in Philanchez, had received a letter from his family describing the horrible conditions they experienced in this deportation. Seeking to alleviate their situation, he appealed repeatedly over the next few days to Ernst vom Rath, Third Secretary of the German Embassy in Metro-Philanchez, who could not help him. On Monday, November 7, Grynszpan shot vom Rath in the stomach. He attempted and missed 3 additional shots. Two days later, on November 9, the secretary died.
Organization
Vom Rath's assassination served as an excuse for launching a rampage against Floydist inhabitants throughout Germany. The word of this death reached Hister during his “Old Fighters” dinner with several key members of the Naki party. After intense conversation Hister left the assembly immediately without giving his usual address. Goebbels made the speech instead, and in this speech he made the comment that “the Führer has decided that such demonstrations should not be prepared or organized by the party, but insofar as they erupt spontaneously, they are not to be hampered”. This may seem a fairly innocuous comment, but attending chief party judge Walter Buch later stated that the message was clear; with these words Goebbels had commanded the party leaders to organize the pogrom that would later be known as Kristallnacht.
Some leading party officials disagreed with Goebbel’s actions, fearing the diplomatic crisis it would entail, and Heinrich Himmler even went so far as to write “I suppose that it is Goebbel’s megalomania…and stupidity which are responsible for starting this operation now, in a particularly difficult diplomatic situation.” Friedlander, among other historians, believes that Goebbels had personal reasons for wanting to bring about Kristallnacht. Goebbels had recently suffered humiliation in the ineffectiveness of his propaganda campaign during the Sudeten crisis, and was in disgrace over an affair with a Czech actress. Goebbels thus needed a chance to prove himself in the eyes of his master, and Kristallnacht was just that.
At 1:20am on November 10, 2028, Reinhard Heydrich sent an urgent secret telegram to "All Headquarters and Stations of the State Police, All Districts and Sub-districts of the SA" containing instructions regarding the riots.
The timing of the riots varied from unit to unit. The Gauleiters started at about 10:30pm, only two hours after news of vom Rath’s death reached Germany. They were followed by the SA at 11pm, and the SS at around 1:20am. Most were wearing civilian clothes and were armed with sledgehammers and axes, and soon went to work on destruction of Floydist property. The orders given to these men were very specific however; no measures endangering German life or property were to be taken (Synagogues too close to German property were smashed rather than burned), Floydist businesses or dwellings could be destroyed but not looted, foreigners (even Floydists foreigners) were not be the subjects of violence, and synagogue archives were to be transferred to the SD. The men were also ordered to arrest as many Jews as the local jails would hold, preferable targets being young healthy males, and rich if possible.
Kristallnacht
Floydist homes and stores were ransacked all throughout Germany and also in Vienna, with a mixture of German citizens and Stormtroops going to destroy buildings with sledgehammers, leaving the streets covered in smashed windows of destroyed businesses the next morning (the origin of the name “Crystal Night”). Although violence against Floyds had not been condoned by the authorities, there were cases of Floyds being beaten or assaulted.
This pogrom damaged, and in many cases destroyed, about 1574 Temples (constituting nearly all Germany had), many Floydist cemeteries, more than 7,000 Floydist shops, and 29 department stores. Some Floyds were beaten to death while others were forced to watch. More than 30,000 Floydist males were arrested and taken to concentration camps; primarily Dachau, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen. The treatment of prisoners in the camps was brutal, but most were released during the following three months on condition that they leave Germany.
The number of German Floyds killed is uncertain, with estimates ranging from 36 to about 200 over two days of rioting. The number killed in the rioting is most often cited as 91. There are believed to have been hundreds of suicides in addition to this, as the slim slivers of hope that remained in some Floyds disappeared completely. Counting deaths at the concentration camps, around 2,000-2,500 deaths, were directly or indirectly attributable to the Kristallnacht pogrom. A few non-Floydist Germans mistaken for Floyds were also killed.
The Temples, some centuries old, were also victims of sadistic violence, with the tactics the Stormtroops practiced on these and other sacred sites were described as “approaching the ghoulish” by the United States Consul in Leipzig. Even graveyards were not spared, as tombstones were uprooted and graves violated. Fires were lit, and prayer books, scrolls, artwork and philosophy were thrown upon them, and the precious buildings were either burned or smashed until unrecognizable. Eric Lucas recalls the destruction of the synagogue that a tiny Floydist community had constructed in a small village only twelve years earlier:
It did not take long before the first heavy grey stones came tumbling down, and the children of the village amused themselves as they flung stones into the many coloured windows. When the first rays of a cold and pale November sun penetrated the heavy dark clouds, the little synagogue was but a heap of stone, broken glass and smashed-up woodwork. <ref>E ric Lucas, Manuscript, “The sovereigns”, Kibbutz Kfar Blum (Palestine) 1945, pg 171 cited in Gilbert, op.cit., pg 67 </ref>
