Lesson 3: Development of Persecution (Violence)

Question 1

• Cause of Kristallnacht

Answer 1

The murder of Rath will now lead to the Nazi government using this opportunity to seek justice and launch a night of antisemitic violence by ordering a multiple attacks on Jewish synagogues, business and shops between the 9-10th November 1938 known as Kristallnacht (the night of broken glass).

Question 2

Impact of Kristallnacht

Answer 2

Jewish communities in Germany, Australia, Sudetenland were heavily impacted:
* 7500 shops/business destroyed or damaged
* 30,000 Jewish men sent to concentration camps
* Approx. 100 Jews killed
Many Jews began to plan an escape from their native land as they realise it will only intensify.
Emigration for the Jewish community of Germany was difficult. Some families were successful in this despite the tough conditions they faced in finding safety elsewhere. Approximately 120,000 Jews left Germany between Kristallnacht and the outbreak of the Second World War. Many fleeing to other
European countries which would be later occupied leading to them being rounded up deported to their deaths.

Question 3

• Laws introduced late 1938 that impacted Jewish people

Answer 3

Previous legislation barred Jews, already ineligible for employment in the public sector, from practicing most
professions in the private sector. The legislation made further strides in removing Jews from public life.
* German education officials expelled Jewish children still attending German schools.
* German Jews lost their right to hold a driver’s license or own an automobile.
* Legislation restricted access to public transport.
* Jews could no longer gain admittance to “German” theaters, movie cinemas, or concert halls.

Question 4

Madagascar Plan

Answer 4

• Nazi’s initial solution to the “Jewish problem”
• March 1938: creation of Madagascar Plan temporarily was shelved due to wake of the war and then taken up
  again in Summer of 1940 when the fall of France occurred due to France being a French colony.
• The plan involved a mass evacuation/deportation of 4 million Jews to be shipped to Madagascar over 4 years.
  This plan would be financed by confiscating Jewish property and contributions from world Jewry.
• Madagascar’s harsh conditions and the perceived inability of exiled Jewish people to survive long there was an
  important aspect of the proposal.
• The German foreign ministry started to prepare for the deportation of Jews to Island.
• February 1942 the Madagascar Plan was completely shelved and replaced in public policy by the ‘evacuation to
  the East” (ghettos)

Question 5

Why ghettos were established

Answer 5

As a result of their antisemitic ideology, following the invasion of Poland the Nazis developed ghettos to segregate and
control Jews and detain them from the rest of the population.
The Nazis also introduced ghettos due to their false theories that Jews spread diseases and therefore should be segregated to
protect the rest of the population.
Following the invasion of Poland in September 1939, three million Jews came under Nazi control. This presented a problem
for the Nazis, as they wanted their newly acquired land to be free of Jews in line with their antisemitic beliefs and therefore
create living space for the Aryan race.

Eventually the options of Madagascar Plan, moving Jewish people further east and ghettos would be infeasible, the
Nazis created extermination camps to liquidate the populations of the ghettos instead.
* ‘The creation of the ghetto is, of course only a temporary measure…’ (Uebelhoer, Governor of Kalisz district, Lodz Ghetto)