11. November 1938, Innsbrucker Nachrichten, p. 11.

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Every year in November, we are called upon to remember the terrible events of the Pogrom Night of 1938. It marked the beginning of the open, violent persecution of the Jewish population, which culminated in the Holocaust. Remembrance thrives on concrete stories. One of these stories took place in Innsbruck, documented by a perfidious newspaper article and the truth of an eyewitness.
On November 11, 1938, one day after the actual "Reich Pogrom Night," the following article appeared in the Innsbrucker Nachrichten, distorting the events and presenting them as "public fury":

The Synagogue in Innsbruck Smashed
Understandable Retaliatory Measures by the Outraged Innsbruck Population

Innsbruck, November 11, 1938
The cowardly bloody deed of the murderous brat Grünspan in Paris has led to serious demonstrations against the Hebrews in all parts of the Reich. As in all German cities, similar clashes have occurred in Innsbruck. The justified and understandable outrage has also led to excesses in our city, which, due to their elemental outbreak, has claimed victims from the deeply agitated population.
Among other things, the Jewish synagogue in the Straße der Sudetendeutschen was stormed by a crowd of people on Wednesday night and destroyed inside. In their justified fury over the miserable bloody deed, the crowd smashed the furnishings of the Jewish house and gave vent to their understandable indignation against the Jews in excited shouts.
The few businesses that had not been de-Jewed also fell victim to this outrage. Two Innsbruck Jewish businesses were thoroughly destroyed in the early hours of Thursday.
To prevent further excesses, a number of Jews had to be taken into protective custody.
The Reich government's declaration that it will solve the burning problem of these unwanted guests through legal measures makes future excesses unnecessary. The population will take note of these measures in a disciplined manner and act accordingly. Furthermore, thanks to the great progress of the de-Jewification action, Innsbruck in particular, and thus our Gau, is in the fortunate position of being finally freed from any Jewish burden in the very shortest time.

What the Article Conceals: The Truth Behind the Propaganda

This article is a masterpiece of Nazi propaganda. It constructs an image of spontaneous, justified public anger to legitimize the systematic destruction of Jewish life and the plundering of Jewish property. However, the historical truth is completely different.
An eyewitness reported what really happened that night: She was on her way to the station with her fiancé. There was no sign of a "popular uprising." Instead, a mob of young National Socialistscame storming, so threatening that the couple hid in a doorway for fear of being attacked themselves. They were not "outraged Innsbruck citizens," but organized gangs of NSDAP thugs carrying out their work of destruction.
The alleged "spontaneity" was a staged lie. The murder of a German diplomat in Paris by Herschel Grynszpan merely served the rulers as a welcome pretext to launch the long-planned open violence against the Jewish population. Even Gauleiter Hofer was in Munich at the time of the act to obscure any direct connection to him – although such a violent act would never have been possible without his consent.

The True Motives: Hatred, Greed, and Systematic Persecution

The ancestors of Innsbruck's Jewish population had lived in Tyrol since the 15th century and were an integrated and respected part of society. Spontaneous hatred from the populace against them did not exist; it was systematically incited by the National Socialists.

​The pogroms were driven by deeply cynical motives:

1. Ideological Radicalization: The complete exclusion and expulsion of Jews from the German "Volkskörper" (national body).
2. Personal Enrichment: As shown by the example of the Jewish merchant Grünmandl in Hall, whose business and houses were "Aryanized" (stolen), many National Socialists were engaged in the shameless appropriation of Jewish assets.
3. Systematic Imprisonment: The statement that Jews were taken into "protective custody" was a cynical euphemism for their arrest and deportation to concentration camps. The notes of Dr. Ernst Verdross from the Dachau concentration camp prove that the inmates had already begun preparing new barracks with straw mattress plugs a month before the pogroms for the expected Jewish prisoners. They specifically targeted wealthy individuals – lawyers, doctors, industrialists – whose assets could be confiscated by the state.

Our Duty to Remember

The article in the Innsbrucker Nachrichten is more than just historical source material. It is a cautionary example of how language is used to spread lies, trivialize violence, and dehumanize entire segments of the population. It shows how a planned, brutal pogrom was constructed as an "understandable retaliatory measure."
By unmasking this lie and telling the true story of the victims and the perpetrators, we fulfill our duty of remembrance. We remember the destroyed synagogue, the looted businesses, and the people who were robbed of their homeland, their dignity, and often their lives. We remember that the Jewish community of Tyrol were not "unwanted guests," but deeply rooted fellow citizens.
This commemoration is not just a look into the past, but a constant mandate for the present: to be vigilant against antisemitism, racism, and the falsification of history – today and in the future.