{"id":6597,"date":"2021-11-09T07:05:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-09T06:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=190770"},"modified":"2021-11-09T07:32:08","modified_gmt":"2021-11-09T06:32:08","slug":"9-november-on-this-day-in-history","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/9-november-on-this-day-in-history\/","title":{"rendered":"9 November: On this day in history"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Dominic Sandbrook\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 09 November 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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9 November 1938: Broken glass confirms Nazi brutality<\/h3>\n

German Jews are brutalised in a night of rioting<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Few dates have such sinister resonance as 9 November 1938, the night Germans called \u2018Kristallnacht\u2019 \u2013 the night of broken glass. To observers all over the world, the news of a government-backed pogrom against Germany\u2019s Jewish population seemed the final confirmation of the Nazis\u2019 barbarity. Even those who had urged appeasement of Adolf Hitler<\/a> now changed their tune. \u201cNo foreign propagandist bent upon blackening Germany before the world,\u201d said The Times<\/em>, \u201ccould outdo the tale of burnings and beatings, of blackguardly assaults on defenceless and innocent people, which disgraced that country yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pretext for the riots was the murder of a German diplomat, Ernst vom Rath, by a Polish Jew in Paris. Some historians suggest that the Nazis were itching for an excuse to seize the Jews\u2019 financial assets; others directly blame the propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, who was keen to distract attention from his affair with a Czech actress.<\/p>\n

But the consequences for Germany\u2019s Jews were horrifying. Within hours of the news of vom Rath\u2019s death, gangs of SA storm troopers, SS men and party supporters were attacking Jewish homes across the country. Almost a hundred people were killed, while some 30,000 were arrested and held in concentration camps. Hundreds of synagogues, shops and businesses were burned, and afterwards hundreds of thousands of Jews fled into exile.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have seen several anti-Jewish outbreaks in Germany during the last five years,\u201d wrote the Telegraph<\/em>\u2019s correspondent, \u201cbut never anything as nauseating as this. Racial hatred and hysteria seemed to have taken complete hold of otherwise decent people. I saw fashionably dressed women clapping their hands and screaming with glee, while respectable middle-class mothers held up their babies to see the \u2018fun\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nazi regime was yet to adopt the Final Solution. For many people, however, this was the moment the Holocaust<\/a> really began.<\/p>\n

Julian Humphrys rounds up smaller anniversaries\u2026<\/h4>\n

9 November 1809<\/h6>\n

Painter and engraver Paul Sandby died at his home in St George\u2019s Row, Bayswater. His work had done much to popularise the art of watercolour and the appreciation of landscape.<\/p>\n

9 November 1841<\/h6>\n

Birth at Buckingham Palace<\/a> of the future Edward VII. He was the first heir born to a reigning British sovereign for 80 years and the last born with privy councillors<\/a> present to confirm his identity.<\/p>\n

9 November 1907<\/h6>\n

The Transvaal Government gives Edward VII the Cullinan Diamond, the world\u2019s largest known uncut diamond, as a 66th birthday present.<\/p>\n

9 November 1940<\/h6>\n

Neville Chamberlain dies of bowel cancer. Six months earlier he had resigned as prime minister<\/a> following the failure of the Norwegian campaign, but served on in Winston Churchill<\/a>\u2018s cabinet until ill health forced him to leave office a few weeks before his death.<\/p>\n

<\/p><\/div> <\/section>

9 November 1989: The Wall comes tumbling down<\/h3>\n

East Berlin meets West amid tears and celebrations<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

By November 1989 the Berlin Wall<\/a> had stood for 28 years, severing all links between capitalist west and communist east. To many young Germans, it had long seemed a baleful part of the fabric of life. Yet by the autumn of 1989, pressure for change was becoming irresistible.<\/p>\n

When Hungary opened its borders, thousands of East Germans who had gathered there escaped into the west via its border with Austria. On 18 October, East Germany\u2019s aged dictator, Erich Honecker, was forced to step down.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in East Berlin, crowds of demonstrators chanted: \u201cWe want out!\u201d As the demonstrations continued, the new communist leader, Egon Krenz, decided on radical measures. At a meeting on 9 November, he and his colleagues decided they would open the border checkpoints the following day.<\/p>\n

But at a press conference, the East Berlin party leader, Gu\u0308nter Schabowski, who had been inadequately briefed, told reporters that the border was open \u201cimmediately, without delay\u201d. What followed was one of the most famous moments in modern German history. As Schabowski\u2019s words were repeated on the West German evening news, thousands of East Berliners flooded towards the wall.<\/p>\n

At 10.45pm the border guards, having given up trying to control the waves of people, opened the gates. At that moment, Schabowski said later, East Germany simply \u201cceased to exist\u201d.<\/p>\n

The scene that night, which immediately flashed around the world, became one of the iconic moments of the 20th century. Even as West and East Germans wept, hugged and shared bottles of champagne, the communist empire was falling apart. In East Berlin, Gu\u0308nter Schabowski\u2019s elderly mother-in-law asked her daughter what the fuss was about.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve opened the border,\u201d the younger woman said. \u201cDoes that mean we\u2019ll have capitalism now?\u201d her mother asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d said Mrs Schabowski, \u201cit probably does.\u201d \u201cWell,\u201d her mother replied, \u201cin that case I\u2019ll hang around for a few more years and see what it\u2019s like.<\/p>\n

Browse more On this day in history<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n