Kristallnacht Consequences Essay

Question 1

Introduction

Answer 1

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.

Question 2

Short term and long term consequences summary

Answer 2

Arrests, deportation, and persecution. The Holocaust and final solution.

Question 3

Assassination at German Embassy

Answer 3

7/11/1938 - Herschel Grynzspan, a Polish-German Jew shot Ernst vom Rath at the German Embassy.

Question 4

Kristallnacht Events

Answer 4

Anti Jewish riots, burning down synagogues, attacking Jewish homes, smashing shops, destroying religious artifacts.

Police ordered not to intervene.

Question 5

End of event

Answer 5

7,000 Jewish businesses destroyed, rest to become non Jewish.

Not meant to kill but approx 90 killed.

Question 6

Short term consequence summary

Answer 6

Influx of Jewish wanting to escape Europe and increased oppression while other countries reluctant to show support.

Question 7

Arrests

Answer 7

30,000 Jewish men arrested by Secret State police and sent to concentration camps. Say why.

Question 8

Material Losses + Outcome

Answer 8

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.

Question 9

Property + restrictions

Answer 9

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.

Question 10

Refugees

Answer 10

No money + antisemitism means other countries did not want them.

Question 11

Evian Conference

Answer 11

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”.

Question 12

Long term consequence summary

Answer 12

Holocaust, millions of deaths, many years of trauma.

Question 13

Reason for Nazi policy

Answer 13

The international community showed indifference to Kristallnacht so Nazi Party worked towards policy for extermination not persecution of Jews.

Question 14

Ghettos

Answer 14

Initially did not murder and attempted to relocate. Difficult so created ghettos where people died by maltreatment etc.

Question 15

No opposition

Answer 15

Germans confident no opposition from other countries since no one welcomed refugees.

Question 16

Einsatzgruppen

Answer 16

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.

Question 17

Wansee Conference

Answer 17

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.

Question 18

Final Solution

Answer 18

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.

Question 19

Long term consequence link to Kristallnacht

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

Conclusion

Answer 20

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.