The increasingly totalitarian , militaristic regime which was being imposed on Germany by Hitler allowed him to control the actions of the SS and the military . On November 7 , 1938 , a young Polish Jew , Herschel Grynszpan , attacked and shot two German officials in the Nazi German embassy in Paris . ( Grynszpan was angry about the treatment of his parents by the Nazi Germans . ) On November 9 the German Attache , Ernst vom Rath , died . Goebbels issued instructions that demonstrations against Jews were to be organized and undertaken in retaliation throughout Germany . The SS ordered the Night of Broken Glass ( Kristallnacht ) to be carried out that night , November 9 – 10 , 1938 . The storefronts of Jewish shops and offices were smashed and vandalized , and many synagogues were destroyed by fire . Approximately 91 Jews were killed , and another 30,000 arrested , mostly able bodied males , all of whom were sent to the newly formed concentration camps . In the following 3 months some 2,000 – 2,500 of them died in the concentration camps , the rest were released under the condition that they leave Germany . Many Germans were disgusted by this action when the full extent of the damage was discovered , so Hitler ordered that it be blamed on the Jews . Collectively , the Jews were made to pay back one billion Reichsmark ( equivalent to billion euros ) in damages , the fine being raised by confiscating 20 per cent of every Jewish property . The Jews also had to repair all damages at their own cost
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
History of the Jews in Germany