Eighty years ago
More than a hundred Jews were murdered, and over 30,000 Jewish men were arrested. Today we remember Kristallnacht, exactly eighty years ago.
The Frank family
The night has gone down in history as Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass), because of the glass of shattered shop windows that littered the streets. Many Jews sought a safe refuge, including relatives of the Frank family who were then still living in Germany. Two of Anne’s uncles, Julius and Walter Holländer, managed to flee Germany after their arrest and emigrated via Amsterdam to the USA in 1939. Grandmother Holländer, the mother of Anne’s mother, moved in with the Frank family in Amsterdam in March 1939.
The Netherlands
Nazi Germany was preparing for war. In the night of 9-10 May 1940 the Nazis attacked the Netherlands, and by 14 May 1940 the occupation was a reality. In the Netherlands too, Jews were no longer safe.