This Movietone newsreel from the week of November 20, 1938 is the only known filmed American news story about Kristallnacht. The footage shows President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull at microphones with voice-over summary statements, followed by very strong on camera statements by former President Herbert Hoover, Al Smith, and Alf Landon.
No actual footage of the violence is shown, because the Nazi action was ordered to be executed in secret and at night. As a document of its time, this newsreel remains a dramatic statement, as much for the omissions as for the specific content.
The National Center For Jewish Film
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