On this day 73 years ago German SA and SS units ransacked Jewish synagogues and businesses, resulting in 90 deaths.
Hitler had slowly been building up hatred against the Jews among the German people ever since his entrance into politics in the early 1920s. After coming to power in 1935, a slow stream of legislation began stripping civil and human rights away from the population.
The Night of Broken Glass was the culmination of a series of events, but primarily the assassination of Germany's ambassador to France: Ernst vom Rath. He was shot by a Polish Jew, whose family had been deported only a month earlier. This single act of a lone man was blamed upon the rest of his people.
The riots themselves lasted for two days and saw the destruction of thousands of buildings across Germany. However, to Hitler's shock, the world reaction was overwhelmingly negative. The United States recalled its ambassador while other nations severed diplomatic ties completely. The Nazi parties in Europe and America lost all support. This forced the Germans to abandon public displays of anti-semitism, but most historians agree that it was the beginning of the Holocaust.
After the rioting stopped, 25,000 Jews were sent to the concentration camps. They were the first of many.
