A collection of rare images were recently presented to the public, showing the Nazi documentation of Kristallnacht.
Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, were pogroms aimed against Jews and carried out by the Nazi Party in 1938.
5 View gallery
A synagogue that was destroyed by Nazi members on Kristallnacht
(Photo: Courtesy of Yad Vashem)
Up until now, the Gold family from the United States was in possession of the images, but never talked about it. The father of the family served in Europe during World War II in the counter-intelligence division of the U.S. Army.
After he passed away, his daughter, Anne Leifer, and her two daughters discovered the album full of photographs from the Kristallnacht pogroms of November 1938.
"When I opened the album from 84 years ago, I felt like a hole had been scorched in my hands," Elisheva Avital, Gold's granddaughter, said.
The Gold family decided to donate the album to the Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center and its project the Gathering the Fragments.
The album was delivered with the help of a family member, Rabbi Joshua Pas, CEO of the Nefesh B'Nefesh NGO, which promotes Jewish Aliyah from the U.S, Canada and the United Kingdom.
The images from the album show pogroms in Nuremberg and a German town named Fürth, with the photos taken by Nazi photographers.
5 View gallery
Jews standing in sleeping outfits as Nazi soldiers broke into their homes n Kristallnacht
(Photo: Courtesy of Yad Vashem)
"It is difficult and horrifying to look at photographs of synagogues brutally being desecrated," said Chairman of Yad Vashem Dani Dayan.
"The photographs clearly present the mechanism of hatred that the Nazi regime implemented in an institutionalized manner."
The first images in the album show pictures of Jewish homes that were broken into by the Nazis, and the Jews are seen standing in pajamas, some wounded, and some are still in their beds - all part of the Nazi propaganda.
5 View gallery
Nazi soldiers destroying Jewish stores on Kristallnacht
(Photo: Courtesy of Yad Vashem)
"This is important evidence that will be kept in Yad Vashem archives and will help to tell the story and history of the Holocaust to every person in Israel and abroad, and to serve as a warning sign of rising antisemitism," Dayan added.
Jonathan Matthews, the head of photo archives, said: "From the initial inspection of the photographs, one can notice these are unusual images, because they show the Jewish victims from up-close, and document the actions of the Nazis themselves at the time of their occurrence - which is something we haven't encountered before."
"We can see Schutzstaffel (SS) and Sturmabteilung (SA) members executing the pogroms. They shatter, ignite and burn Jewish stores and synagogues, humiliate Jews, all while the public stands aside and watches.
"This is further proof the order was given by Nazi leaders, and these pogroms were not spontaneous - as Germany tried to present," Matthews added.
During the Kristallnacht pogroms, dozens of synagogues were burned, and thousands of Jewish-owned stores were destroyed. In addition, 92 Jews were murdered, hundreds were wounded, and no less than 30,000 were taken to concentration camps.