On November 7, Herschel Grynszpan, a distraught 17-year-old refugee Polish Jew in Paris, whose parents were among the thousands deported to the Zbaszyn area in Poland, assassinated the Third Secretary in the German Embassy in Paris. Grynszpan hoped to call public attention to the plight of the thousands of helpless deportees. Vom Rath died of his gunshot wounds on the afternoon of November 9. The assassination prompted the Nazis to implement previously made plans to conduct a pogrom across Germany and throughout Austria. Although the pogrom was described officially as a spontaneous popular response to the murder of the third secretary, it was, in fact, an organised action at the initiative of Minister of Propaganda Goebbels, and with Hitler's consent. That very night, instructions were handed out across the country. The SA encouraged the masses to take part in the pogrom. Mass hysteria erupted. Some 1400 synagogues were partially or totally destroyed. The pogrom was given the name Kristallnacht, because of the innumerable shop windows that were shattered. Shops were burgled, plundered, and looted. Property damage was immense. Jews' homes were attacked in many locations, many Jews were wounded, and about 100 Jews were murdered. Some 30,000 Jews were arrested, most of them affluent and influential, often on the basis of prepared lists. They were sent to concentration camps, where the SS subjected them to brutal treatment. Hundreds died; others were released after signing statements affirming their intention to leave Germany. Their property was confiscated. In many locations, rioting continued even after it was officially declared over. After the pogrom, the Jewish community was assessed a collective fine of 1 billion reichsmarks in reparations for the murder of vom Rath and was charged for the damage caused on Kristallnacht. The Kristallnacht pogrom was a watershed in preparing the final eradication of the Jews' status in Germany.
