The Kindertransport: Saving The Whole World

In 1938 the Nazis banned Jews from almost everywhere.The Nazis persecuted the Jews by banning them from public places and making them lose jobs. “The Nazis continued to segregate Jews from German society, banning them from public schools,universities, theaters, sports events, and “Aryan” zones”. Then Jews had to have a J stamped on their passports. The Nazis also destroyed Jewish places and killed close to 100 Jews.

The Holocaust was organized by Adolf Hitler and it targeted Jewish people. In the beginning, the Nazis only targeted their political opponents such as Communists or Social Democrats. These were the people that were sent to the first concentration camp. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 labeled anyone with three or four grandparents as a Jew and those with two Jewish grandparents as half-breeds. Under the Nuremberg Laws, Jews became routine targets for stigmatization and persecution (“History”). The Nazis portrayed Jews as a race and not a religious group. Religious anti-Semitism could be resolved by conversion, political anti-Semitism by expulsion. Ultimately, the logic of Nazi racial anti-Semitism led to annihilation (Berenbaum 1). “Kristallnacht” was a night in November of

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

So at this point in time Jews were very restricted. One Jewish teenager, Herschel Grinszpan, was living in Paris. His father was relocated by the Nazis to Poland. He decided that he was going to assassinate the German ambassador. He went to the embassy, but he was not able to locate his target. So he tried to assassinate Third Secretary Ernst vom Rath instead. Ironically, Rath was an anti-Nazi. Even though Rath was only a minor official, Hitler used propaganda to convince people that the act was an international conspiracy by Jews everywhere. Hitler made it seem as though Jews were attacking Germany itself. This is what led to Kristallnacht. The act of one Jew gave Hitler exactly the excuse he needed to hurt the Jews en masse and in public. It gave him the excuse for the government to condone mass destruction of Jewish property and businesses.

Jews were discriminated during this time. They were treated unfairly. An example of how they were treated is from the book, “every jew had to wear a yellow star.” ( Wiesel, 11) They wore this because the Nazis wanted to single them out because of who they were. When they were in concentration camps, the prisoners had to shave their head bald and dress in rags. “ He ultimate affront to their identity was replacing of every prisoner’s name with a number.” ( The Guardian) Their own identities were taken away. “Hitler’s racial notions were implemented by measures that increasingly excluded jews from German society.” ( Holocaust Denial) Adolf HItler and the Nazi party were anti-semitic toward jews. That means

Anti-semitism was one of the factors that lead to the horrific genocide, yet this genocide began with the spread of words and ideas from “Hitler’s” point of view. He started the spread of hate. On November 9, 1938, the Nazis destroyed synagogues and the shop windows of Jewish-owned stores throughout Germany and Austria. Kristallnacht or “The Night of Broken Glass” was a time of horror. Germans (Nazis) invaded Jewish communities and destroyed everything Jewish. The Nazis wanted to strike fear into the Jewish people, so they destroyed

January 30, 1933 started the calamity that would result in the mass murder of some six million Jews. It occurred in all countries that the Germans, also known as Nazis, occupied during World War 2, including Germany and Poland. Jews were sent to enclosed ghettos where they were given insufficient amounts of food and were in unsanitary conditions. By the time of 1945, the Germans and their collaborators killed nearly two out of every three European Jews as part of the “Final Solution”, for their plan was to wipe out the Jewish people. Jews were sent to death camps of which they were put into gas chambers and killed. Many died from malnutrition. It was the time of genocide, of mass destruction. To the leader Adolf Hitler, Jews were considered a threat to German racial purity and community. They were an inferior

Kindertransport was the program created during the Holocaust with a reason, but its children faced various outcomes. The growing rate of Jewish refugees became an urgent matter after the damage done on Kristallnacht, which left many homeless, without families, and without significant structures and buildings. The solution was compromised to allow children under the age of 17 into the Great Britain, depending on their registration and intense need to leave Germany. However, once in the United Kingdoms, the children faced many new situations, varying from their age and gender. New homes and safe shelters from the war were presented to some children. Other children struggled to adjust to new lifestyles or to survive on their own after abandonment

The children continued to be effected, there were just less frequent reports of children being physically harmed. Some of the teenage boys who were transported fought against their home country, Germany, in World War II (Ward). Due to this, some of the boys were often killed during combat. The original plan was to prevent the transports from being injured. This was effective for the majority of the time although, some were still injured. There was no way to keep every child 100% safe. Homes were promised to the transports by The Movement for the Care of Children from Germany. There were fears that many of the transports would not have homes due to the amount of children being transported at once. These fears slowly faded as different groups and organizations promised to find and provide a place to stay for every transported child. To ensure the safety of the children while on the train, soldiers searched every transports belongings before they were allowed to enter the train (Ward). Bags were checked for any weapons or suspicious items that could be used to harm another individual. The soldiers wanted to fulfill their job and do their best by making sure that every child that entered the transports made it safely off. While the children were still psychologically effected, they were mostly protected from the violence of the

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

Shops started posting signs reading “No Jews Allowed”, Jews were commonly harassed everywhere they went. In one attempt to rid the German Nation of Jews, Jews with Polish citizenship were rounded up, herded like cattle, and dumped off at the Polish border. The Poles kept them in no-man’s land in horrible conditions. Finally Kristallnacht came, riots across the country that destroyed Jews homes and stores, synagogues burned, and 20,000 Jews were arrested. Hitler the declared his extermination of Jews for his “pure” race.

n November 9 to November 10, 1938, in an incident known as “Kristallnacht”, Nazis in Germany torched synagogues, vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses and killed close to 100 Jews. In the aftermath of Kristallnacht, also called the “Night of Broken Glass,” some 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to Nazi concentration camps. German Jews had been subjected to repressive policies since 1933, when Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) became chancellor of Germany. However, prior to Kristallnacht, these Nazi policies had been primarily nonviolent. After Kristallnacht, conditions for German Jews grew increasingly worse. During World War II (1939-45), Hitler and the Nazis implemented their so-called “Final Solution” to the what

Kristallnacht, also known as the Night of Broken Glass, was a night of organized violent assault on the Jews on November 9, 1938. Although it appeared to be a spontaneous response to a Jewish teenager’s assassination of a German ambassador in Paris, this event was, in fact, a thoroughly organized attack on the Jews. As the name of the incident suggests, two-day long violent outbreak was detrimental. Not only were Sturmabteilung set loose to ransacking Jewish stores and homes, civilians also participated in the series of attacks against the Jews. Over 250 synagogues were targeted; they were destructed, burned, and vandalized. Moreover, over 7,000 businesses were shattered. Plundered Jewish-owned properties were often redistributed to German citizens. During this massive coordinated attack, approximately 100 Jews were killed, and approximately 30,000 Jews were sent to concentration camps, such as Dachau, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen. Although brutally treated, the prisoners were released if they could prove that they were able to emigrate. However, an estimate of 1,000 Jews ended up dying. After Kristallnacht, Jews clearly became social outcasts; they were aggressively dissimilated from the society, marginalized from economic interactions, and persecuted from political activities. Anti-Semitism rose

In 1939, WWII began when Adolf Hitler invaded Poland, causing 6 million Jewish people to fear for their lives. First,all citizens,German and Jew alike had to complete a Cencus about their race religion and ancestry. Second,all people had to carry ID cards,and the Jewish people had to wear the Star of David. Third,Germany passed the Nuremberg Race laws,which took away all Jewish rights,even to the point where they were put into ghettos. Fourth,the Jewish people were taken to concentration camps. The Nazi’s were not smart on taking the Jewish people away. The Holocaust affected thousands of people by creating a sense of fear do to the creation of the Gestapo,by causing terror for the Jewish people,and by destroying the life of Bruno and his family.

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