Ernst vom Rath

Ernst vom Rath
Vom Rath in 1934
Born
Ernst Eduard vom Rath

(1909-06-03)3 June 1909
Frankfurt am Main, German Empire
Died9 November 1938(1938-11-09) (aged 29)
Paris, France
Cause of deathAssassination (gunshot wounds)
OccupationDiplomat
Years active1932–1938
Known forHis death being cited as a pretext for Kristallnacht
Political partyNazi Party

Ernst Eduard vom Rath (3 June 1909 – 9 November 1938) was a member of the German nobility, a Nazi Party member, and German Foreign Office diplomat. He is mainly remembered for his assassination in Paris in 1938 by a Polish Jewish teenager, Herschel Grynszpan, which provided a pretext for Kristallnacht, "The Night of Broken Glass" on 9–10 November 1938. Historians consider Kristallnacht the beginning of the Holocaust.