On the night of 9-10 November 1938, the earth trembled in Germany and Austria. In a matter of hours, dozens of Jews were killed. Hundreds of others were beaten and humiliated.

Jewish-owned shops and businesses were looted and destroyed. Synagogues were torched, burned to the ground. There is scarcely a remnant of the synagogues of Germany and Austria since then.

In the shadow of these outrages, 30,000 Jewish men were sent to the concentration camps at Buchenwald, Dachau and Sachsenhausen.

That black night was the opening shot in the Nazi’s cruel plan. It was a trial balloon to test how deep the hatred for Jews had reached, and how far the public would let the Nazi leadership take its murderous intentions – with enthusiastic participation, or with tacit agreement.