Beyond the broken glass: The human cost of the 1938 November Pogrom

On November 10, 1938, eight-year-old Arthur Schneier witnessed his Vienna synagogue burning while firefighters and police looked on approvingly, one child's view of the Nazi-organized November Pogrom. The violence, carried out across Germany and Austria, became known as Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, for the shattered windows of Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues left in its wake. The pogrom marked a turning point in the Nazi persecution of Jews, escalating from discriminatory laws to widespread physical violence and mass arrests. Schneier's account underscores the human cost behind the statistics, illustrating how the events of that night were experienced by ordinary families and children. His testimony, decades later, remains a reminder of the importance of bearing witness as the generation that lived through the pogrom dwindles.