NOVEMBER 9
1989:East Berliners are permitted to cross the Berlin Wall
for the first time in nearly three decades, as the faltering communist
government of East Germany allows free travel between the two halves of
the capital city. Elated Germans from both sides begin tearing down the
hated wall almost immediately.
1918: In the final days of World War I,
Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II announces that he is abdicating the throne.
He flees to the Netherlands, where he will live until his death in June
1941 at the age of 82.
1938: Triggered by Jewish teenager Herschel Grynszpan's
assassination of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath in Paris, Nazi storm
troopers burn synagogues and loot and terrorize Jewish homes and
businesses throughout Germany and Austria. At least 91 Jews are killed
and hundreds of synagogues and Jewish businesses are destroyed. The
event is known as Kristallnacht, the "night of broken glass."
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