The first book to thoroughly chronicle this pivotal event by presenting a wide array of eyewitness testimony, much of it previously unpublished, and to set the event firmly in historical context.

Warning signs -- A harsh childhood -- Coming of age, and heroes of another age -- Good-bye daddy -- Walking through the looking glass -- synagogues aflame -- Righteous Germans -- Taking lives -- The road to hell -- Heinrich Müller's orders to all Gestapo offices -- Heydrich's instructions for Kristallnacht -- Estimated number of Jews killed in the final solution -- Partial list of towns in which synagogues were destroyed -- Jewish emigration from the greater Reich (including Austria and Czechoslovakia) -- Shoah Foundation testimonies.