Ernst vom Rath
| Ernst vom Rath | |
|---|---|
Ernst vom Rath, c. 1934
|
|
| Born |
Ernst Eduard vom Rath June 3, 1909 Frankfurt am Main, Germany |
| Died | November 9, 1938 (aged 29) Paris, France |
| Cause of death | Assassination by Herschel Grynszpan |
| Nationality | Nazi German |
| Occupation | Diplomat |
| Years active | 1932—1938 |
| Known for | Kristallnacht |
Ernst Eduard vom Rath (3 June 1909 – 9 November 1938) was a Nazi German diplomat, remembered for his assassination in Paris in 1938 by a Polish Jewish teenager, Herschel Grynszpan, which provided a pretext for the Kristallnacht, "The Night of Broken Glass."
Vom Rath was born in Frankfurt am Main to an , the son of a high-ranking public official, Gustav vom Rath. He attended a school in Breslau, and then studied law at Bonn, Munich and Königsberg, until 1932, when he joined the Nazi Party and became a career diplomat. In April 1933 he became a member of the SA, the party's paramilitary. In 1935, after a posting in Bucharest, he was posted to the German embassy in Paris. Regarding the "Jewish Question", Rath expressed regret that the German Jews had to suffer, but argued that the anti-Semitic laws were "necessary" to allow the Volksgemeinschaft to flourish.
On the morning of 7 November 1938, Polish-German Jew Herschel Grynszpan, 17, went to the German embassy in Paris and asked to speak with an embassy official. He shot the 29-year-old vom Rath five times, mortally wounding him with bullets to the spleen, stomach and pancreas.
Adolf Hitler himself sent his two best doctors, personal physician Karl Brandt and surgeon Georg Magnus, to Paris to try to save vom Rath's life. Hitler promoted vom Rath, who had been a junior officer at the embassy, to the rank of Legal Consul, First Class (Gesandtschaftsrat I. Klasse) hours before vom Rath's death on 9 November at 17:30 (5:30 p.m.).Kristallnacht was launched within hours.
...
Wikipedia