„Noc kryształowa” z 9/10 XI 1938 r. i „ostateczne rozwiązanie kwestii żydowskiej” na Śląsku Opolskim w latach II wojny światowej
„Kristallnacht” of November 9-10, 1938 and ‘Final Solution of the Jewish Question’ in Opole Silesia during World War II

Summary/Abstract: Before World War II, the term Opole Silesia denoted a part of Upper Silesia located inside the German borders. The land has the status of a regency (Regenzbezirk), and since 1919 it was an Upper Silesian province with its capital in Opole. Opole Silesia’s Jewish community was made up of 9557 people living in 23 communities. When the Geneva convention expired in 1937, the area was covered by the anti-Jewish legislation. During „Reichkristallnacht” on the night of November 9/10, 1938, S.A. militants demolished and looted numerous Jewish apartments, shops and workshops. In Opole Silesia, all the 23 synagogues were burnt down then. The demolition of synagogues was a prelude to the plan of “final solution to the Jewish question” (Endlösung der Judenfrage). In 1941, it was decreed that all Jews shall wear the „Star of David,”, later they were evicted and resettled inside the town in which they lives, before being shipped to concentration camps, chiefly to Terezin in Bohemia, and from there to Auschwitz, where most of them perished.

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