Ernst Vom Rath - Aftermath

Aftermath

After the killing there were claims that vom Rath was a homosexual, and that Grynszpan was intending to use this claim in his defence at the trial by implying that Rath had seduced him. Joseph Goebbels had been intending to turn the trial into Nazi propaganda about Jewish conspiracy, but the homosexuality accusations threatened to humiliate the Nazis. Goebbels wrote that "Grynszpan has invented the insolent argument that he had a homosexual relationship with... vom Rath. That is, of course, a shameless lie; however it is thought out very cleverly and would, if brought out in the course of a public trial, certainly become the main argument of enemy propaganda."

Whether or not Rath was homosexual is not known. His brother was convicted of homosexual offences and there were allegations that vom Rath was treated for rectal gonorrhoea at the Berlin Institute of Radiology. As a result of the potential embarrassment the trial was indefinitely postponed.

Grynszpan was returned to Germany after the defeat of France in 1940 and is believed to have died in a German prison or concentration camp in 1944 or early 1945.