U.S. Press Reacts to Kristallnacht

The Kristallnacht pogrom of November 9, 1938, which resulted in the overnight destruction of hundreds of Jewish businesses and synagogues, sparked a quick international response. This response included many critical headlines generated by papers in the United States. These reports helped discredit pro-Nazi movements both in Europe and North America leading to the eventual decline of their support.

Eight years earlier, after the elections of September 14, 1930, when the Nazis received 6,371,000 votes – over eighteen percent of the total – and were entitled to 107 seats in the German Reichstag, the Nazi Party had grown from the smallest to the second largest political party in Germany. It propelled Hitler to solid national and international prestige and aroused the curiosity of the world press. During the intervening years he was besieged with interview requests from foreign journalists.

Child's passport leaving for Great Britain

After Kistallnacht, however, the international mood began to sour. Many newspapers condemned Kristallnacht, with some comparing it to the murderous pogroms incited by Imperial Russia in the 1880s. The United States recalled its ambassador (but did not break off diplomatic relations) while other governments severed diplomatic relations with Germany in protest. At this time, the British government approved the Kindertransport program for refugee children. Kindertransport (meaning Children's Transport) was the informal name of a series of rescue efforts which brought thousands of refugee Jewish children to Great Britain from Nazi Germany between 1938 and 1940.

-- Information gathered from The History Place and US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Additional US headlines after Kristallnacht:

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4

KILLING FOR COUNTRY  

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TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 1

THE JOURNEY TO ANCIENT GREECE 

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TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2

A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

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TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3

WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING 

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