Kristallnacht Consequences Essay Flashcards
Introduction
Kristallnacht which is also commonly called the “Night of Broken Glass” was a was a pogrom (an organised attack by a mob) targeting Jews in Germany, Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia in November of 1938.
Short term and long term consequences summary
Arrests, deportation, and persecution. The Holocaust and final solution.
Assassination at German Embassy
7/11/1938 - Herschel Grynzspan, a Polish-German Jew shot Ernst vom Rath at the German Embassy.
Kristallnacht Events
Anti Jewish riots, burning down synagogues, attacking Jewish homes, smashing shops, destroying religious artifacts.
Police ordered not to intervene.
End of event
7,000 Jewish businesses destroyed, rest to become non Jewish.
Not meant to kill but approx 90 killed.
Short term consequence summary
Influx of Jewish wanting to escape Europe and increased oppression while other countries reluctant to show support.
Arrests
30,000 Jewish men arrested by Secret State police and sent to concentration camps. Say why.
Material Losses + Outcome
Material losses due to Jewish property damage, realisation that German banks will have to pay.
German govt blames it on Jews. They are fined 1 billion Reichsmark.
Property + restrictions
New laws created to for Jewish to be forced to transfer their property to Aryans.
Bans from public places, schools, unable to get drivers licence.
Refugees
No money + antisemitism means other countries did not want them.
Evian Conference
July 1938, 32 countries met to discuss existing refugee problem. Sympathetic but excuses to not refugees in. e.g St. Louis voyage to Cuba but turned away at border. Let in by Belgium, Netherlands, England, France but trapped in Europe to become victims to “Final Solution”.
Long term consequence summary
Holocaust, millions of deaths, many years of trauma.
Reason for Nazi policy
The international community showed indifference to Kristallnacht so Nazi Party worked towards policy for extermination not persecution of Jews.
Ghettos
Initially did not murder and attempted to relocate. Difficult so created ghettos where people died by maltreatment etc.
No opposition
Germans confident no opposition from other countries since no one welcomed refugees.
Einsatzgruppen
June 22 1941, German invasion of Soviet union. Mobile killing squads (Einsatzgruppen) created to kill Jews on occupied territory.
Enter towns/cities, round up Jews, communists and Roma, make them give up valuables or clothes, then gassed or shot before being dumped in a mass grave.
Wansee Conference
20 January 1942, near Lake Wansee. 15 right rank Nazi + german officials gathered to discuss “the final solution to the Jewish question in Europe”, proposed by Reinhard Heydrich, SS Chief Head Deputy.
Final Solution
Code name for planned mass genocide. Key part extermination camps created for mass killings. Not the same as Holocaust but last stage of it. Majority of people who died were murdered as part of it.
Long term consequence link to Kristallnacht
Stepping stone to violence of Holocaust, when persecution became extermination. Gradual progression, might not have become that scale without Kristallnacht or if other countries hadn’t stayed silent.
Conclusion
Major turning point which led to significant events in history. Increased number of arrests, deportations, persecution. Holocaust aimed to exterminate Jewish race. Help along gradual process of WWII.
