American Catholic Responses to Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht, the nationwide pogrom against Germany’s Jews in November 1938, was a turning point in the history of the Holocaust. Previous scholarship has examined how the U.S. government and the American Jewish community responded to the violence. In this presentation, Dr. Rafael Medoff will break new ground by examining how American Catholic leaders responded to Kristallnacht. He will explore the array of theological, political, and sociological factors that shaped Catholic responses.