Kristallnacht in Leipzig

In Leipzig, as in other German cities, Jews and Jewish institutions suffered from attacks during the events called Kristallnacht, from November 9–10, 1938. Kristallnacht took its name because of all of the shattered glass from destroyed synagogues, Jewish-owned stores, Jewish-owned homes, schools, and Jewish-owned artifacts.^[1] The violence and destruction was carried out by members of the Sturmabteilung (SA), Schutzstaffel (SS), Gestapo, as well as German civilians.^[1][2] German and Nazi officials, along with standard civilians, watched as Jewish property in Leipzig turned to ash. The pogrom affected Jewish men, women, and children in Leipzig and other parts of Germany. There were more foreign-born Jews present in Leipzig than the majority of cities in Germany, and this made conditions for Leipzig Jews worse. Harsh conditions towards Jews in Leipzig began earlier than Kristallnacht because of this, and made Kristallnacht especially harmful.^[3] Kristallnacht destroyed much of the Jewish life in Leipzig. The events of Kristallnacht in Leipzig were described by United States Consul David H. Buffum, who reported what he saw to the State Department and published his 16-page report, Anti-semitic Onslaught in Germany as Seen from Leipzig, shortly after the events. A five-page excerpt from his report was published in the Nuremberg Trial documents and was subsequently quoted at length in several English-language source collections on German history.^[4][5]