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Herschel Grynszpan

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Assassin

The Resume

    (March 28, 1921-circa 1944)
    Born in Hanover, Germany
    Son of Polish Jews
    Left Germany for exile in France (1936)
    At the German embassy in Paris, fatally shot Ernst vom Rath (November 7, 1938)
    Event triggered the Kristallnacht pogrom (November 9-10, 1938)
    Believed to have died in German custody
    Officially declared dead by West Germany (1960)

Why he might be annoying:

    He immigrated illegally to France.
    He chose his assassination target essentially at random.
    Ironically, vom Rath had been placed under surveillance by the SS after expressing disapproval of German anti-semitism.
    He shot vom Rath to protest Nazi Germany's treatment of Jews, only to trigger worse violence.
    When the French were transporting prisoners during the German invasion in WWII, he got separated from his convoy during an air raid.
    Rather than take advantage of the opportunity to escape, he turned himself in to the French police; after France's surrender, Vichy officials handed him over to the Nazis.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He attempted to immigrate to Palestine but had been rejected for being too young.
    Just days before the shooting, he got word that his parents were among 12,000 Jews who had had their property seized and had been deported to Poland, only to end up in a no-man's land between border towns when Poland refused to admit them.
    Let's face it, even without him shooting vom Rath, the Nazis would have dug up some pretext to ratchet up their violence against Jews.
    He derailed Nazi plans for a show trial to implicate 'world Jewry' in the assassination by threatening to claim in court that the shooting was an apolitical crime of passion caused by vom Rath seducing him.
    Ironically, his parents, who had sent him abroad for safety, survived the war, having escaped to the Soviet Union in 1939 and settled in Israel after WWII.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 24 Votes: 58.33% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 302 Votes: 42.05% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 7 Votes: 28.57% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 8 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 7 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 16 Votes: 56.25% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 27 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 12 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 21 Votes: 42.86% Annoying