Herschel Grynszpan Shooting Ernst vom Rath (November 7, 1938)

It seemed an extreme action when suddenly German nationalists started venting their anger against Jews during a night and a day in November 1938. The German authorities were instructed not to interfere:

At 1:20 a.m. on 10 November 1938, Reinhard Heydrich sent an urgent secret telegram to the Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police; SiPo) and the Sturmabteilung (SA), containing instructions regarding the riots. This included guidelines for the protection of foreigners and non-Jewish businesses and property. Police were instructed not to interfere with the riots unless the guidelines were violated. Police were also instructed to seize Jewish archives from synagogues and community offices, and to arrest and detain “healthy male Jews, who are not too old”, for eventual transfer to (labor) concentration camps.

Wikipedia

But why then, and not before?

Shooting of vom Rath (from Wikipedia)

Among those expelled was the family of Sendel and Riva Grynszpan, Polish Jews who had emigrated to Germany in 1911 and settled in Hanover, Germany. At the trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961, Sendel Grynszpan recounted the events of their deportation from Hanover on the night of 27 October 1938: “Then they took us in police trucks, in prisoners’ lorries, about 20 men in each truck, and they took us to the railway station. The streets were full of people shouting: ‘Juden Raus! Auf Nach Palästina!’” (“Jews out, out to Palestine!”). Their seventeen-year-old son Herschel was living in Paris with an uncle. Herschel received a postcard from his family from the Polish border, describing the family’s expulsion: “No one told us what was up, but we realized this was going to be the end … We haven’t a penny. Could you send us something?” He received the postcard on 3 November 1938.

On the morning of Monday, 7 November 1938, he purchased a revolver and a box of bullets, then went to the German embassy and asked to see an embassy official. After he was taken to the office of Ernst vom Rath, Grynszpan fired five bullets at Vom Rath, two of which hit him in the abdomen. Vom Rath was a professional diplomat with the Foreign Office who expressed anti-Nazi sympathies, largely based on the Nazis’ treatment of the Jews and was under Gestapo investigation for being politically unreliable. Grynszpan made no attempt to escape the French police and freely confessed to the shooting. In his pocket, he carried a postcard to his parents with the message, “May God forgive me … I must protest so that the whole world hears my protest, and that I will do.” It is widely assumed that the assassination was politically motivated, but historian Hans-Jürgen Döscher says the shooting may have been the result of a homosexual love affair gone wrong. Grynszpan and vom Rath had become intimate after they met in Le Boeuf sur le Toit, which was a popular meeting place for gay men at the time.

The next day, the German government retaliated, barring Jewish children from German state elementary schools, indefinitely suspending Jewish cultural activities, and putting a halt to the publication of Jewish newspapers and magazines, including the three national German Jewish newspapers. A newspaper in Britain described the last move, which cut off the Jewish populace from their leaders, as “intended to disrupt the Jewish community and rob it of the last frail ties which hold it together.” Their rights as citizens had been stripped. One of the first legal measures issued was an order by Heinrich Himmler, commander of all German police, forbidding Jews to possess any weapons whatsoever and imposing a penalty of twenty years’ confinement in a concentration camp upon every Jew found in possession of a weapon hereafter.

Ernst vom Rath died of his wounds on November 9th. When Hitler heard about his death, he left a meeting with other Nazi leaders, and Joseph Goebbels then gave a speech saying,

“the Führer has decided that… demonstrations should not be prepared or organized by the party, but insofar as they erupt spontaneously, they are not to be hampered.”

Herschel Grynszpan (March 28, 1921 – death unknown)

As protests go, this one ignited a firestorm of revenge. I’m sure that was not what this young man had intended. Sometimes, one small act has giant consequences. So what do we know about Herschel Grynszpan? His birth details and not much else.

The timing of this chart is randomized, so I was surprised that two of the four inconjuncts form a Yod pointing at the Midheaven (which is conjunct his Part of Fortune). That Yod may be totally speculative, but the other two inconjuncts are not. The Moon in this chart represents the age Herschel was (17) when he did the shooting, so it might be ‘accidentally’ correct, after all.

Moon Inconjunct Mars

Until you learn to handle your feelings, you are likely to get angry easily, have temper tantrums and be touchy about what is yours and what is not. You may feel that you have to defend yourself against imagined threats. The problem here is that you are likely to become too emotionally involved with ideas, opinions or even objects without knowing it until someone threatens them. Then you react as if you were being personally threatened or attacked. You have to realize that it is possible to change your opinions and attitudes without damaging your worth as a person.

Mercury Inconjunct Neptune

Sometimes this aspect means that you are so nervously sensitive that you pick up all the negative psychological energies around you and react to them very strongly. If this is true for you, the only way to deal with it is to be moved to a peaceful, positive environment. If there is too much noise or too many bad vibrations in your life, you will withdraw more and more and refuse to face reality.

Jupiter Inconjunct Midheaven

This aspect can mean that you have mixed feelings towards adults and persons in authority over you. Although you know that they have your best interests at heart and that they want you to succeed at your own objectives, it often seems as if their demands are keeping you from doing what you want. When you want to go off and have fun, for example, you are told to finish your work first. At times you want to break free of this restricting influence and go off by yourself.

Pluto Inconjunct Midheaven

You may have trouble with older people who try to teach you how to effectively take control of your life. Even while you are young, you may resent their control over you and resist everything they are trying to teach you. To a great extent, your path in life will be shaped by your early confrontations with authority figures…Your parents and teachers should be very straightforward with you, because if you feel that people are not being honest with you, you will not be honest with them. You are quite capable of acting behind people’s backs if you consider it necessary or if you feel that you never get your own way.

Read, Nazis for the ‘authorities’.

The Catalyst Moment

The timing of this ‘event’ is set @ 10:00 am on a whim. Because the energies for this day are very similar to that of the Kristallnacht, I will let it stand alone. Notice that the Moon and Mars are again inconjunct, while the other inconjunct is between Jupiter and Neptune. The lingering doubt was whether this shooting took place as an unprovoked assault. The idea that vom Rath and Grynszpan were lovers comes into play, here. And, if I’m being honest, the possibility that the authorities hoped to kill ‘two birds with one stone’ has come to my mind. But I have no definite ‘proof’, other than by comparing Herschel’s birth chart with Ernst’s shooting.

Okay, the conjunction between Herschel’s Venus and Mars conjunction and the event’s Moon is my proof. The conjunction between Herschel’s Moon and the event’s Mercury/Venus conjunction backs this up. And, the event Ascendant @ 20° Sagittarius, in opposition to Herschel’s birth Ascendant @ 16° Gemini, proves that the timing is probably correct.

What Angela Merkel Said, One Year Ago:

Amen.