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Night Of Broken Glass: The Jewish Pogroms Of Kristallnacht

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A major tactic of Joseph Goebbels was to remind Germans of their previous struggles against foreign enemies and their supposed issues arising from Jewish subversion. Goebbels claimed that the "Jewish penetration of the professions" (law, medicine, property, theatre, etc.) and a foreign Jewish boycott of Germany necessitated the Nazis’ "counter-measures." Through these ideas and the measures which he took to present them, Goebbels was able to pave the way for the creation of an environment that was accepting of hostility toward Jews, even before any actual legislation or executive measures had been taken. This was evident through the Jewish pogroms of Kristallnacht. Kristallnacht translates as “night of crystal” in English and is typically referred to as the “Night of Broken Glass.” On the night of November 9-10, a number of supposedly spontaneous protesters took to the streets of Germany, annexed Austria, and in areas of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia recently occupied by German troops, breaking into synagogues and Jewish-owned shops through the windows and arresting as many Jews as they could. …show more content…

At the time of Kristallnacht, no anti-Semitic legislation had been implemented by the Nazis, and while most of those engaged in the violence were either Nazi Party officials, members of the Sturmabteilungen Assault Detachments, or participants in the Hitler Youth programs, the overall passivity of the German people in regard to the violence exhibited against Jews on that night indicated to the Nazi government that they could move forward with more radical measures. Subsequent legislation banned Jews from practicing most professions in the public and private sectors, and made further strides in removing Jews from public

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