The short, strange life of Herschel Grynszpan: a boy avenger, a Nazi diplomat, and a murder in Paris

The shooting of Ernst vom Rath, a low-level German diplomat, in Paris in November 1938 provided an immediate pretext for Kristallnacht, the Nazi government-encouraged vicious pogrom against the Jews throughout Germany and parts of Austria. It has never been clear why the Jewish killer, a teenage refugee from Poland by way of Germany, committed the act. Was he a hero, a psychopath (as Hannah Arendt believed), a tool of the gestapo? Had there been a homosexual relationship between Rath and Grynszpan? Nor is it known what became of Grynszpan during and after the war. The legal proceedings against him were interrupted by the German occupation of Paris, and a later show trial was put off by high Nazi officialdom. Grynszpan was sent to a concentration camp, but there is no definitive evidence of his death there. His case, prominent at the time, faded into obscurity. Kirsch has eloquently and carefully remedied a gap in the historical literature and provided a dramatic real-life mystery with potentially broad appeal. His concluding meditations on the nature of resistance, of which this may (or may not) be a compelling example, are thoughtful and illuminating.--Levine, Mark Copyright 2010 Booklist

In November 1938, a 17-year-old Polish Jew walked into the German embassy in Paris and assassinated diplomat Ernst vom Rath in reprisal for the deportation of his family and 12,000 other Jews. Grynszpan couldn't have foreseen the consequences of his vigilante justice-just two days later, the Nazis would use the assassination as a pretext for Kristallnacht. In telling Grynszpan's story, Kirsch (The Grand Inquisitor's Manual) is particularly strong in his treatment of the killing's strung-out aftermath. Framing the murder as part of an international Jewish conspiracy, the Germans made elaborate plans for a lengthy scripted show trial. But Grynszpan derailed attempts to try him by claiming that he and vom Rath had been engaged in a homosexual relationship. The scandalous assertion embarrassed German leaders, and Kirsch questionably calls it "his greatest act of courage." Ultimately, "the sheer scale of German mass murder" overshadowed the Grynszpan case. While Kirsch undertook little original research (he did interview half a dozen historians of the Holocaust), he's done an excellent job of combing through the secondary literature on the Grynszpan case. Though unnecessary details distract from the narrative, this is still a lively and suspenseful tale. 8 pages of photos. Agent: Laurie Fox, Linda Chester and Associates Literary Agency. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Biblical scholar and Los Angeles Times columnist Kirsch (The Grand Inquisitor's Manual: A History of Terror in the Name of God, 2008, etc.) examines a forgotten young Jewish assassin, eliciting new queries about Jewish armed resistance during World War II. The name of Herschel Grynszpan may have "ended up in the dustbin of history," but his deed--the shooting of German official Ernst vom Rath, which so enraged the Nazis that they unleashed Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938--did not. Kirsch believes it is time to take another look at the life of this troubled Hanover-born Jewish teenager, who was sent to Paris in 1936 in a last-ditch attempt by his desperate family to find some opportunity for advancement or even survival. By 1933, the Grynszpan parents had already survived pogroms in Poland and three decades of poverty in Hanover; once the Nazi vise tightened, the youngest son was sent to Paris to stay with uncles and aunts. Herschel was at his wit's end when money ran out and employment was closed to him, and the French and Germans both rejected his request for visas. Trapped in Paris, he subsequently learned that his parents and sister had been rounded up and dumped on the Polish border. Under financial and familial pressure, in hiding and subject to anti-Jewish reprisals, Grynszpan bought a gun, proceeded to the German embassy and shot vom Rath in a desperate act of vengeance not unlike what moved the young medical student David Frankfurter to shoot Swiss Nazi functionary Wilhelm Gustloff in 1936. Grynszpan's deed gave the Nazis a "convenient pretext" for the unleashed barbarity against Jews, while Jewish reaction was divided. Journalist Dorothy Thompson offered an impassioned radio address in his defense. Suspicions of conspiracy and homosexuality abounded, and Kirsch expertly picks through the murky details to shed new light on the historical significance. A compelling study of "a spectral figure whose real nature remains a mystery and whose historical significance is profoundly enigmatic."]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

The shooting of Ernst vom Rath, a low-level German diplomat, in Paris in November 1938 provided an immediate pretext for Kristallnacht, the Nazi government–encouraged vicious pogrom against the Jews throughout Germany and parts of Austria. It has never been clear why the Jewish killer, a teenage refugee from Poland by way of Germany, committed the act. Was he a hero, a psychopath (as Hannah Arendt believed), a tool of the gestapo? Had there been a homosexual relationship between Rath and Grynszpan? Nor is it known what became of Grynszpan during and after the war. The legal proceedings against him were interrupted by the German occupation of Paris, and a later show trial was put off by high Nazi officialdom. Grynszpan was sent to a concentration camp, but there is no definitive evidence of his death there. His case, prominent at the time, faded into obscurity. Kirsch has eloquently and carefully remedied a gap in the historical literature and provided a dramatic real-life mystery with potentially broad appeal. His concluding meditations on the nature of resistance, of which this may (or may not) be a compelling example, are thoughtful and illuminating. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

In November 1938, a 17-year-old Polish Jew walked into the German embassy in Paris and assassinated diplomat Ernst vom Rath in reprisal for the deportation of his family and 12,000 other Jews. Grynszpan couldn't have foreseen the consequences of his vigilante justice—just two days later, the Nazis would use the assassination as a pretext for Kristallnacht. In telling Grynszpan's story, Kirsch (The Grand Inquisitor's Manual) is particularly strong in his treatment of the killing's strung-out aftermath. Framing the murder as part of an international Jewish conspiracy, the Germans made elaborate plans for a lengthy scripted show trial. But Grynszpan derailed attempts to try him by claiming that he and vom Rath had been engaged in a homosexual relationship. The scandalous assertion embarrassed German leaders, and Kirsch questionably calls it "his greatest act of courage." Ultimately, "the sheer scale of German mass murder" overshadowed the Grynszpan case. While Kirsch undertook little original research (he did interview half a dozen historians of the Holocaust), he's done an excellent job of combing through the secondary literature on the Grynszpan case. Though unnecessary details distract from the narrative, this is still a lively and suspenseful tale. 8 pages of photos. Agent: Laurie Fox, Linda Chester and Associates Literary Agency. (May)