The terrifying event of Kristallnacht got its name from the multitude of broken shards of glass that lined the streets of Germany. On November 9 and 10, 1938, the reign of Nazism was brought to its peak when the Nazi went around Germany and other bordering countries and destroyed most Jewish buildings. With no mercy, the Nazi destroyed Jewish businesses, shops, houses, and synagogues. The assassination of Ernst Vom Rath had prompted Kristallnacht. Ernst Vom Rath was a german embassy official in Paris, and was assinated by Herschel Grynszpan, a Jew who wanted to seek revenge of the Nazis for expelling his parents from Poland. Hitler and the Nazis used this event as a launchpad, and convinced Germany that the Jews were to blame for their downfall during World War 1. Kristallnacht proved to be a dramatic shift for Jews living in Germany because it unified Germany to believe what Hitler wanted the Germans to believe:  Jewish people were inferior. Kristallnacht was a horrifying event led by Hitler and the Nazis, and their evil determination to prove that the Jews were to blame for their downfall.