Kristallnacht through the Eyes of Newspapers of the Period: Insights and Reflections

On the anniversary of the events of 5698 (1938), which the Nazis called “Kristallnacht” (Crystal Night) – and and for some reason this name has stuck for generations – it is interesting to look at the headlines of the newspapers that were published at the time, and to reflect on their insights.

The newspapers of American Jewry, both religious and conservative ones and others, covered the pages with black headlines and told about the horror in detail, while the newspapers of Poland, Lithuania, etc. were busy that day, November 11th, 1938, with completely different matters. Dry headlines and calm news filled the pages of the newspapers, like the usual news in the world. Ostensibly, the reason for this is that the writers and reporters of the American press were well networked throughout Western Europe, and therefore news from Germany and Austria reached them in real time. To the reader of the Polish newspapers, however, what catches the eye is mainly the indifference and the routine atmosphere, as if the world was not on the brink of destruction.

The blessing and best wishes sections – hard to see, since the great majority of those who congratulated and were congratulated (on the occasion of some kind of joy or appointment) died so soon afterwards. People who sat and planned and weaved dreams and imagined…

Here, a heart-warming piece of news catches the eye. News published in the newspaper of the city of Kalisz, on the day after the pogrom, when the streets of Berlin and Vienna were still full of blood, broken glass, and stones.

The writer enthusiastically recounts his experience of flying to the Land of Israel in a LOT (the Polish airline to this day) plane. Below is a photo of the article, under the title “For the second time with Lot to the Land of Israel.” This pleasure lasted only fifteen hours, instead of 7 days on the ship!

The writer does not hide his excitement from the experience of flying in the silver airplane, which he says is one of the most sophisticated American-made planes in the world. He describes the beauty of the journey and its pleasantness, and confidently predicts: if the journey today took 15 hours, then in just one year, it will only take 11 hours! So that “we will be able to have breakfast in ‘Piccadilly,’ and dinner that same day will already be eaten at ‘Carlton’ on Herzl Street”… Did the esteemed writer think about what would happen the following year, on the same date, where they will eat in the morning and where in the evening? … This is just an example, and it is heartbreaking.

A copy of the American Jewish newspaper “Der Morgen Journal un Yiddishe Taglbat” (Jewish Journal and Daily News) from the day after Kristallnacht. The main headline reads: “Terrible Pogroms in Naziland” (Courtesy of the National Library of Israel)

The American Jewish newspaper, the Forward, from Nov. 11th, 1938. The main headline reads: “Terrible Day and Night of Murders of Jews in Germany”

If we want to favourably judge the newspaper systems in Poland that do not tell about the greatest pogrom in history due to lack of knowledge and information, then it will be very difficult for us to do so when we turn to the pages of the Lublin city newspaper, exactly one week after Kristallnacht (November 18, 1938).

The newspaper devotes an entire page to the struggle for control of the Maharshal synagogue, and cites in detail the claims of the “people” who want the synagogue to be run as a modern, well-kept “people’s” synagogue (“folk shul”), with a cantor and choir and electric lighting instead of the old oil lighting. We are not aware of what exactly the argument was and who was against whom in that polemic, but looking back, when seeing what happened to all sides of the debate only a year or two later, one’s heart and soul are torn and bothered tremendously.