Following the November 1938 pogroms against Jews in Germany called Kristallnacht in which at least 91 Jews were killed and many synagogues and Jewish shops destroyed , the WJC issued a statement : " Though the Congress deplores the fatal shooting of an official of the German Embassy in Paris by a young Polish Jew of seventeen , it is obliged to protest energetically against the violent attacks in the German press against the whole of Judaism because of this act and , especially , to protest against the reprisals taken against the German Jews after the crime . " With the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 , the WJC headquarters moved from Paris to Geneva to facilitate communications with Jewish communities in Europe . In the summer of 1940 , by which time most of Europe had fallen under Nazi occupation , the World Jewish Congress 's headquarters were moved to New York to share office space with the American Jewish Congress , and a special WJC office was set up in London . The British Section of the WJC was tasked with acting as the European representative of the organization
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
World Jewish Congress