Kristallnacht

Two of which were the parents of Herschel Grynszpan, a teenager living in Paris at the time his parents were taken away. When he heard of his parents being forced out of their home, he was infuriated. The next day, he bought a pistol and five bullets. On November 7, 1938, he walked into the Third Secretary’s office and shot at him. Two of the five made contact, but it wasn’t enough to kill him until three days later. While in the hospital fighting for his life, newspapers started talking about the event, calling Jews murderers. A few synagogues were burned and 70 Jews were killed while the official was in the hospital. Then on November 9, 1938, Ernst vom Rath was officially declared dead from his injuries. When Hilter heard the news he allowed it to continue and told the police to withdraw forces (Hilbert

Kristallnacht, or the "Night of Broken Glass", is one of the most crucial events in German, Jewish, and World History. Before, the Jews were simply assaulted and verbally abused. However, on the night of November 9, 1938, an unplanned and extremely violent action against the Jews occurred. In two days, over 250 synagogues were burnt down while the fire department did nothing to stop it, over 7,000 Jewish businesses were trashed and looted, Jews were murdered, Jewish cemeteries, schools, hospitals, and homes were looted by SS while the police attempted to preserve them but failed. Before Kristallnacht, Jews ' lives were not threatened. Historically Jews were not welcome by many countries which

Throughout Europe, similar horrific tales of slaughter and abuse began to surface as Adolf Hitler became more successful and aggressive in his quest to create a purely Aryan nation. “Another, considerably more violent phase of anti-Jewish activity took place in 1938 and 1939; it was initiated on November 9-10, 1938, the infamous Kristallnacht, or night of shattered glass.” Passports were still being issued for Jews to travel to Palestine; however, many elders refused to leave. The task of starting over in a foreign land proved to be overwhelming, and no one believed these conditions would intensify nor continue.

The Holocaust was a great tragedy, but it didn't happen overnight. It was a long process of demeaning Jews as subhuman. This started as early as 1933 when Hitler first came to power. However, Kristallnacht, or The Night of the Broken Glass, was like the dam bursting. It was when the government of Germany encouraged its people to loot and burn Jewish shops, synagogues, and schools. In addition, many Jews were pulled out of their houses in the middle of the night and sent to concentration camps. In some towns so many of the men were sent to the camps that the women and children were forced to clean up the broken glass that littered the streets. Kristallnacht was a very significant point in the Holocaust,

Wladyslaw Szpilman was a pianist for a radio station during the beginning of the Second World War in the Fall of 1939. Living in Warsaw at the time, it only took a few weeks until the German forces took full control over the city. Szpilman and his family decide to stay in Warsaw after hearing that the Allied forces (Great Britain) were joining the war against Germany. From that point on the conditions for Jews exponentially deteriorate, suffering caused by both the German forces and the Polish people. Under the Nazi regime, the Jewish people are exposed to many injustices. Polish businesses that once welcomed all, now strictly disallowed the Jewish people. As well as instances of German forces bullying the jewish community, Szpilman’s father was struck in the face by and German officer and told that he was forbidden to walk on the sidewalk. The Nazi control over Warsaw was the start to the horrors of the holocaust, caused by both the assault of the German forces and the acts of the Polish people under the Nazi

Horror struck on January 30, 1933, when Germany assigned Adolf Hitler as their chancellor. Once Hitler had finally reached power he set out to complete one goal, create a Greater Germany free from the Jews (“The reasons for the Holocaust,” 2009). This tragedy is known today as, “The Holocaust,” that explains the terrors of our histories past. The face of the Holocaust, master of death, and leader of Germany; Adolf Hitler the most deceitful, powerful, well spoken, and intelligent person that acted as the key to this mass murder. According to a research study at the University of South Florida, nearly eleven million people were targeted and killed. This disaster is a genocide that was meant to ethnically cleanse Germany of the Jews. Although Jewish people were the main target they were not the only ones targeted; gypsies, African Americans, homosexuals, socialists, political enemies, communists, and the mentally disabled were killed (Simpson, 2012, p. 113). The word to describe this hatred for Jewish people is known as antisemitism. It was brought about when German philosophers denounced that “Jewish spirit is alien to Germandom” (“Antisemitism”) which states that a Jew is non-German. Many people notice the horrible things the Germans did, but most don’t truly understand why the Holocaust occurred. To truly understand the Holocaust, you must first know the Nazis motivations. Their motivations fell into two categories including cultural explanations that focused on ideology and

Summary: This article was an introduction to the Holocaust. The German Nazi’s thought that the Jews were a community. Not only the Jews were targeted, anyone with a racial inferiority was targeted. For example, although the Jews were the main threat the gypsies, Jehovah’s witnesses, and homosexuals and the disabled were also targeted. The Holocaust was a way to decrease the Jewish population; the final solution was to murder the Jews of Europe or anyone that was a threat to their German culture. Many died of incarceration and maltreatment. During the war they created ghettos, forced-labor camps between 1941 and 1944 the Nazi German Authorities would deport the Jews to extermination camps where they were murdered in gassing facilities. May 7, 1945 the German armed forces surrendered to the allies.

In Poland in the year of 1942 was when Poles first had to start choosing. On September 24th 1942 the City Chief (Mayor) ,Dr. Franke, issued a proclamation restricting the helping of Jew. (Document A) Around this time Jew were also transported to ghettos. Ghettos are largely populated area of only Jews where they rarely got food and it was very unsanitary there. The proclamation restricted any Jew from leaving the ghettos and the punishment was death to them and their families. Non-Jews were not allowed to help them either. Non-Jews were restricted from: providing Jews with shelter, delivering them food, and selling them

[IMAGE] A Jewish man clearing broken glass after Reichkristallnacht Whilst this physical brutality is certainly horrific, it is on a much smaller scale than other terror regimes of the era, such as Stalin’s Russia, where hundreds of thousands of innocent soviet citizens were sent to work camps and worked to death. Due to this, it could be argued that Nazi policy towards Jews was not remarkably brutal however the brutality of Nazi Germany also took on a much more extreme psychological dimension against Jewish citizens. These incidents of ‘legal anti-Semitism’ were common in Nazi Germany, an example of which being the 1933 book burning, where, in a state organised affair thousands of Jewish-authored books were burned in public.

In this journal article, the author discusses a story that took place in 1943 “known to only a few close students of the Third Reich.” The author begins this article by briefly explaining that the event that took place in 1943 was a street demonstration, and that it is so significant because it “marked the single instance of group protest by Germans of the Third Reich in behalf of fellow citizens who were Jewish--and it worked.” Because the author claims this occurrence is so unheard of, he or she further notes that the purpose of this journal article is “to tell the story of that protest.” This story begins with the background of Hitler’s plans. The author claims that the only Jews exempt of the “Final Solution” were those married to Aryans “until early 1943.” Until “unannounced, the SS burst into Berlin 's factories at daybreak…and arrested all Jews, kidnapped Jews from their homes, and anyone on the streets wearing the Star of David was carted off without explanation and taken with other Jews to huge ‘collecting centers’ in central Berlin, in preparation for large-scale deportations to Auschwitz,” (Dissent in Nazi Germany). The author states that this was called “Judenschlussaktion” or “the final roundup of Jews.” This plan did not exactly work because of the Aryan wives of the Jewish men. The claims, “A protest broke out when the hundreds of women at the gate began

Anti-semitism in Germany led by Adolf Hitler would back up a plan called the final solution, to exterminate all of the Jews in Europe. Out of the 100 million Jews aimed for extermination, 6 million of them were killed. On his path to German greatness, Jews became victim to inconceivable actions. First the Nuremberg Laws were passed which stripped Jews of their german citizenship, eliminating their opportunity to flee to other countries. After Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, Hitler forcefully deported Jewish people into fenced confinements called ghettos. More Jews died here than in any extermination camp due to the harsh conditions and labor. Most people living in ghettos had no access to running water or a sewage system and overcrowding

en suffering repressive policies since Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the policies and hardships became violent, as opposed to non-violent in the past. Some desecrated Torah scrolls can be seen as examples of the terrorization of Kristallnacht. They are currently on display at the museum. This artifact is important because it is a prime example of the disrespect and hate as well as religious oppression Jews faced during the Holocaust.

2). Even though this was not a violent treatment of the Jews, it was an attempt to bankrupt and dehumanize them of everything they had worked for their whole lives (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). As a result, Jews became a segregated people. They had to ride on buses and trains only in the seat that were clearly marked for them (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). Jewish children were allowed to be bullied at school in an attempt to keep them from coming to school. Hitler used this to brand the Jews as a lazy people (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). The Nuremberg Laws passed in 1935 gave even more power to the Nazis and took away more dignity of the Jews. The Jews were stripped of their German citizenship and marriages between Jews and non-Jews were not allowed (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). At this point, the Jews who could afford to pay a fine to leave the country were allowed to do so, but the ones who could not afford it had to stay behind and were not allowed to get food or medicine (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). Hitler’s campaign against the Jews escalated in 1938 with “Krystalnacht” – The Night of the Broken Glass (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). After a Nazi diplomat was found shot to death, Hitler began a seven day war of terror against the Jews (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). Shops that were owned by Jews were destroyed and robbed, homes and synagogues burned

. "The Reich Citizenship Law: First Regulation (November 14, 1935)." http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/nurmlaw4.html. N.p.. Web. 20 Jan 2013.

The holocaust was a bleak and unrecoverable part of the history of the twentieth century that will always be remembered. Millions died for no reason except for one man’s madness. Although many people know why this war happened many don’t know when and what events lead up to this: the way Hitler came into power, or when the first concentration camp was established, and what city it was in, why Jews were hated so much by Hitler, and why the rest of the country also hated them as well as, and what the chronology of the Holocaust. These are some of the things I will explain in my paper.