On Nov. 9 and 10, 1938, the world shifted. In Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland, Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues were vandalized, torched and demolished. The shattered storefront windows that littered the streets gave this night its name: Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass.

More than 1,400 synagogues were set on fire. Approximately 7,500 Jewish-owned shops were destroyed. Thirty thousand Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps. These were not isolated acts of rage. They were coordinated. They were sanctioned. They were the announcement that hatred had stepped out of the shadows and into official policy.

Kristallnacht marked a turning point. Persecution transformed into active extermination. And the world, for the most part, watched silently.

Each year o

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