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Author Unravels The Mysterious
Odyssey Of Herschel Grynszpan

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O

n Nov. 7, 1938, a 17-
year-old Polish im-
migrant named
Herschel Grynszpan walked
into the German embassy in
Paris and shot Secretary of
Legation Ernst vom Rath.
Two days later, the Nazis
instigated a massive cam-
paign of terror called
Kristallnacht. They smash-
ed windows in Jewish-owned
businesses, destroyed syn-
agogues and killed hundreds
of Jewish men, women and
children. It was repayment,
they said, for the murder of
vom Rath.
The Nov. 7 shooting at the
German embassy, its after-
math and the curious life
and disappearance of
Herschel Grynszpan are the
subject of a new book, The
Day the Holocaust Began by
Gerald Schwab, a former
State Department official.
Though published in 1990,
The Day the Holocaust
Began has a history that
begins more than 50 years
ago. It dates back to the days
when Mr. Schwab served as
a translator at the
Nuremberg International
Military Tribunal.
Mr. Schwab, who today
lives in Virginia, was born
in Germany and settled in
the United States after
Kristallnacht. He returned
to Germany to work at the
Nuremberg trials, later
transferring to the Berlin
Document Center, where he
researched information for
other trials against
suspected Nazis.
While at the Berlin
Center, Mr. Schwab first
came across files on
Herschel Grynszpan, who
had shot Ernst vom Rath in
an effort to draw world at-
tention to the Nazi persecu-
tion of Jews. Days before the
shooting, Mr. Grynszpan,
who was staying with
relatives in Paris, learned
that his parents had been
forced to leave their home in
Germany.
Mr. Schwab was drawn to
the similarities between his
own life and that of Mr.
Grynszpan. Both had been
young men when the war
began. As a boy, Mr. Schwab
also parted from his father,
who was sent to Dachau
after Kristallnacht. And
both Mr. Schwab and
Herschel Grynszpan were
German natives.

Gerald Schwab: "The information
about Grynszpan's fate is out
there someplace."

Mr. Schwab continued to
research Herschel
Grynszpan's life, reading
newspaper articles and
interviewing men who were
to participate in Mr.
Grynszpan's trial. The trial
never took place.
After returning to the
United States, Mr. Schwab
joined the foreign service.
All material he wanted to
publish was subject to ap-
proval. He wrote a draft of
the Grynszpan story and
sent it to the foreign service
board.
"They said it was very in-
teresting," Mr. Schwab said.
"They also told me, 'We have
a few problems,' and said
they would mark the pages
in question with paper clips.
When the manuscript came
back, it weighed twice as
much because of the paper
clips."
The problem centered on
personalities cited in the
book who were related to
foreign government officials
at the time. He said he back-
ed away when the censors
told Mr. Schwab to make
changes to avoid this prob-
lem. The book was put on
hold for years.
Mr. Schwab
In 1987,
retired. He sent the Grynz-
span manuscript to New
York; three days after it
arrived, it was accepted for
publication.
Mr. Schwab described
Herschel Grynzspan as a
short-tempered young man,
not an extraordinary youth
but one whose acts pre-
cipitated an extraordinary
uproar in its time. The
vom Rath murder, Mr.
Schwab said, "was a very
significant event in
Europe."

The papers were filled
with reports about the case,
and a Journalists' Defense
Fund was established to help
Mr. Grynszpan with trial
costs. Among the group's
supporters were writers
Dorothy Thompson and F.
Scott Fitzgerald.
Mr. Grynszpan never went
to trial. For years, his case —
because it involved both
Germany and France — was
caught in international red
tape. Then in September
1939 Germany invaded
France. Amid the turmoil of
war, Mr. Grynszpan was
released from prison and
wandered for days around
the country.
In what Mr. Schwab labels
one of the most curious
aspects of the case, Mr.
Grynszpan opted to turn
himself in to the authorities.
He was subsequently taken
to Nazi Germany. Hitler
himself was said to be espe-
cially interested in seeing
that Mr. Grynszpan was put
on trial.
Little is known about
Herschel Grynszpan after he
arrived in Germany, though

Herschel Grynszpan after his ar-
rest.

American troops circulated a
rumor that he had been seen
alive after the war.
In search of information
about the young man's fate,
Mr. Schwab placed ads in
newspapers. He received a
number of letters from men
and women who said they
had seen Mr. Grynszpan in
Nazi camps.
Members of a small group
of Grynszpan devotees con-
tinue to believe he may still
be alive. Mr. Schwab has his
doubts.
"I think he would have
surfaced if he were still
alive," Mr. Schwab said.
"The information about
his fate is out there
someplace," he said. "We
just don't know where it is or
who has it." ❑