On October 27, 1938, Hitler ordered the forced expulsion of Polish Jews living in Germany. Eighteen thousand were forcibly taken to the Polish border -- their possessions taken -- then forced across. One of the families forced to leave was the Grynszpan family. They had a son Hirsch studying in Paris. Zindel Grynszpan sent his son a postcard outlining what had taken place. Hirsch proceeded to the German embassy in Paris, where he shot and killed Ernst vom Rath. When the news of the death of Rath reached Germany, massive attacks began against the Jewish community. Nearly 500 synagogues were destroyed. Ninety Jews were killed and thirty thousand Jews were rounded up and sent to Dachau and other concentration camps. Finally, the glass in the storefronts of almost every Jewish establishment was destroyed, thus the name Kristallnacht: the night of (the broken) glass.
