Research Paper On The Night Of The Broken Glass
The Night of the Broken Glass The Nazis killed over 11 million people, including 6 million Jews and 1.1 million children between 1930-1945. The Night of the Broken Glass took place on November 9, 1938, and gets its name from the glass that lay on the streets the next morning. On this night over 250 synagogues were burned, and over 7,000 Jewish-owned businesses were destroyed. The Nazi’s blamed the start of The Night of the Broken Glass on the killing of a German ambassador in Paris. Police forces throughout Germany were told only to intervene if there was a threat towards a Nazi, otherwise they should stand back. Jews were fined a total of $400,000,000 for the damage, and forced to clean the mess in the streets (Broner 45). Anti-Jewish laws, segregation, and deportation greatly escalated greatly after The
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Night of the Broken Glass.
During Hitler's early years, he became known as a ruthless leader throughout all of Germany and was known for his hatred towards Jews. He chose to target the Jews because he believed it was their fault for the worlds problems, and the reason Germany lost World War I. A nationwide economic depression, and an embarrassing defeat during World War I, allowed the chance for Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers' Party to rise to power (“Hitler Comes to Power”). Hitler was a convincing speaker who was able to attract a following of Germans looking for a better life, who had hopes for a better Germany (“Timeline of Events”). “Lured by the wages, a feeling of comradeship, and the striking uniforms, tens of thousands of young jobless men put on the brown shirts and the high boots of the Nazi Storm Troopers” (Bachrach 10). The National Socialist German Workers’ Party, in German they were known as the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, are now referred to as the Nazi party (Fitzgerald 10). As the Nazi party grew, they became more powerful and better known. The Nazi’s rise to power was very rapid. Before the economic depression after World War II struck, the Nazis were unknown, and had won only 3% of the vote to the Reichstag (German parliament) in elections during 1924 (“Hitler Comes to Power”). In 1933, when Hitler became dictator, he changed the government into a one-party dictatorship, and one of his first tasks was to organize the police, so they could enforce Nazi policies (Bachrach 23). As dictator, it became much easier to pass unfair laws and decrees against the Jewish citizens of Germany.
While he was dictator, Hitler created many laws that limited the life of Jews.
During his first six years as dictator, Hitler approved and enforced over 400 decrees and regulations that limited all parts of Jewish life (“Anti-Jewish Legislation in Prewar Germany”). “The first wave of legislation, from 1933 to 1934, focused largely on limiting the participation of Jews in German public life” (“Anti-Jewish Legislation in Prewar Germany”). Most of these laws took away the right to vote and visit public places, while others prohibited actions in the Jewish private life, including the right to slaughter animals, which prevented them from following Jewish dietary laws (Antisemetic Legislation). In April 1933, the Nazi Party created a law that restricted the amount of Jewish students allowed in German schools and universities (“Timeline of Events”). These laws also limited the participation in civil jobs, including the ability to be a lawyer or judge (“Anti-Jewish Legislation in Prewar Germany”). The laws that the powerful Nazis created were aimed towards Jews, and affected Jews throughout Germany with the hope of exterminating them from all of
Germany.
A famous group of laws that were created during 1933 are known as the Nuremberg Laws (“Hitler Comes to Power”). At a party rally in 1935, the Nazis announced the new laws that would make Jews second-class citizens, and take away their right to vote (Bachrach 12). These laws defined somebody as Jewish if they had three or four Jewish grandparents, regardless of whether that they belonged to the Jewish religious community (Bachrach 12). The laws created at the rally in Nuremberg also prohibited Jews from marrying or having sexual intercourse with anyone with "German or related blood" (Bachrach 14). Throughout Germany, the Nazis revoked the licenses of Jewish tax experts, charged an average of 1.5% more to Jewish citizen going to colleges and universities, fired Jewish soldiers, and banned Jewish actors from performing (“Anti-Jewish Legislation in Prewar Germany”). Before the Night of the Broken Glass, the Nuremberg Laws were not as strictly enforced, but after the killing of a German ambassador in Paris, the Nazis enforced the laws with much more force (Groleau, Rick).
The Nazis were ruthless leaders, who would try anything to exterminate the Jews. This includes forbidding them from public life. They did this to try and scare the Jewish citizens away. If they were not able to live in their houses and had none of their belongings they might want to move (“The Aftermath of the Holocaust”) Life after the Night of the Broken Glass was even more difficult. Jewish children, who were previously expelled from museums, public grounds, and swimming pools, were now not able to go to public schools. Jewish children were now completely segregated in Germany, just like their parents (“Kristallnacht”). Jews were also not allowed to collect their insurance money from the pogrom, and the state confiscated the money owed to the Jews. Many Jewish adults committed suicide, while other families tried to flee (“The “Night of the Broken Glass””).
Over the years where the Holocaust took place, Jewish citizens reached a maximum population during the years 1935-1938. With a rising number of Jews living in Germany, the Nazis did not want to see them, so they forced Jews to live in marked-off sections of the towns called ghettos (Bachrach 36). In Germany there was a large population of Jews that needed to be controlled, so they decided to isolate them into these ghettos. The Nazis, after they would conquer a new territory, chose a neighborhood in each town, and surrounded it with barbed-wire fences. After designating a section of town to be surrounded with barbed-wire, Jews were forced from miles around to live there (Altman 156). During the winter Jews living in the Ghettos had a curfew of 8:00, but this was extended to 9:00 during the summer. This restriction would limit the amount of time for the Jewish citizens to converse about topics such as escaping or rioting (“Work in the Concentration Camps”).
Within these ghettos, working was the only way to survive. In the ghettos, there was a limited amount of food, so if you found a job, you might be able to buy more food. When deciding whether or not to allow the segregated Jews outside of the ghettos, they came to the conclusion that if they were completely eliminated from society the economy would become worse (Fitzgerald). Some of the jobs outside of the segregated portions of towns included working in factories, construction projects, on farms, and in mines. These places were owned by German companies, but if you were not in your sleeping quarters by the curfew time you could be punished by death (“Work in the Concentration Camps”). Some of the lucky few who were able to keep some of their belongings bartered them to people outside of the ghettos to buy food. Jewish citizens living in ghettos were forced to wear bright Jewish stars, making them easily identifiable. This would allow a Nazi to know if Jews are trying to break a law. Jews also had to carry passports that identified them with a large ‘J’ (Altman 163).
Living conditions within the ghettos were horrendous, and many Jews died. A lack of sanitation caused widespread epidemics of diseases such as typhus and tuberculosis. The Nazis rationed food to the Jews, which caused starvation. Older people began to collapse in the streets and children had to beg for bread from strangers.The Jews who were too sick to work were sent to concentration camps and were killed (Altman 186). After Jews were deported to one of the "extermination camps," many of them were immediately killed by poisonous gas. Gassing was preferred by the Nazis because it spared the killers the emotional stress of seeing the Jews as they were killed and was considered “cleaner” and more “efficient” (Bachrach 24). Before Kristallnacht, only the Jews that were too sick were transported to a concentration camp but after, the Nazi’s sent as many Jews as possible. The Night of the Broken Glass speed up this process because the Nazis had even more anger towards the Jews and their “crimes” of being Jewish (“The Aftermath of the Holocaust”).
On January 20, 1942, fifteen high-ranking Nazi party and German government leaders gathered for an important meeting in Wannsee, Germany, to discuss the “final solution.” This "final solution" was just a pseudonym for the plan to exterminate all European Jews (“Hitler Comes to Power”). The Nazis used the term "final solution" to hide the fact that they were planning to kill millions of innocent people. The "final solution" was revealed to non-Nazi, German leaders at the Wannsee Conference where they made plans to transportation the Jewish citizens to extermination camps in Poland (“Timeline of Events”). These deportations required the help of all the government leaders to transfer Jews to the concentration camps. (Bachrach 62). The men who met at the Wannsee conference talked about the mass murdering of millions casually (Bachrach 42). “At the same time that ghettos were being emptied, masses of Jews and also Gypsies were transported from the many distant countries occupied or controlled by Germany, including France, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Hungary, Romania, Italy, North Africa, and Greece” (Bachrach 60).
In 1945, Soviet troops found thousands of survivors in the concentration camps suffering from disease and starvation, as well as millions of corpses (“Timeline of Events”). After the Jews were freed, many feared returning to their homes because of the hatred of Jews that was now present throughout Europe. Tens of thousands of homeless survivors of the Holocaust fled west in hopes to find a better life for themselves and any surviving family they had. (“The Aftermath of the Holocaust”). In hopes of creating a better life for their descendents, refugees formed organizations that labored for the establishment of a Jewish state. The State of Israel established in 1948, had displaced Jews streaming into this new state. As many as 170,000 hopeful Jews migrated to Israel by 1953, looking for a better life, and work (Altman 96).
Night of the Broken Glass.
During Hitler's early years, he became known as a ruthless leader throughout all of Germany and was known for his hatred towards Jews. He chose to target the Jews because he believed it was their fault for the worlds problems, and the reason Germany lost World War I. A nationwide economic depression, and an embarrassing defeat during World War I, allowed the chance for Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers' Party to rise to power (“Hitler Comes to Power”). Hitler was a convincing speaker who was able to attract a following of Germans looking for a better life, who had hopes for a better Germany (“Timeline of Events”). “Lured by the wages, a feeling of comradeship, and the striking uniforms, tens of thousands of young jobless men put on the brown shirts and the high boots of the Nazi Storm Troopers” (Bachrach 10). The National Socialist German Workers’ Party, in German they were known as the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, are now referred to as the Nazi party (Fitzgerald 10). As the Nazi party grew, they became more powerful and better known. The Nazi’s rise to power was very rapid. Before the economic depression after World War II struck, the Nazis were unknown, and had won only 3% of the vote to the Reichstag (German parliament) in elections during 1924 (“Hitler Comes to Power”). In 1933, when Hitler became dictator, he changed the government into a one-party dictatorship, and one of his first tasks was to organize the police, so they could enforce Nazi policies (Bachrach 23). As dictator, it became much easier to pass unfair laws and decrees against the Jewish citizens of Germany.
While he was dictator, Hitler created many laws that limited the life of Jews.
During his first six years as dictator, Hitler approved and enforced over 400 decrees and regulations that limited all parts of Jewish life (“Anti-Jewish Legislation in Prewar Germany”). “The first wave of legislation, from 1933 to 1934, focused largely on limiting the participation of Jews in German public life” (“Anti-Jewish Legislation in Prewar Germany”). Most of these laws took away the right to vote and visit public places, while others prohibited actions in the Jewish private life, including the right to slaughter animals, which prevented them from following Jewish dietary laws (Antisemetic Legislation). In April 1933, the Nazi Party created a law that restricted the amount of Jewish students allowed in German schools and universities (“Timeline of Events”). These laws also limited the participation in civil jobs, including the ability to be a lawyer or judge (“Anti-Jewish Legislation in Prewar Germany”). The laws that the powerful Nazis created were aimed towards Jews, and affected Jews throughout Germany with the hope of exterminating them from all of
Germany.
A famous group of laws that were created during 1933 are known as the Nuremberg Laws (“Hitler Comes to Power”). At a party rally in 1935, the Nazis announced the new laws that would make Jews second-class citizens, and take away their right to vote (Bachrach 12). These laws defined somebody as Jewish if they had three or four Jewish grandparents, regardless of whether that they belonged to the Jewish religious community (Bachrach 12). The laws created at the rally in Nuremberg also prohibited Jews from marrying or having sexual intercourse with anyone with "German or related blood" (Bachrach 14). Throughout Germany, the Nazis revoked the licenses of Jewish tax experts, charged an average of 1.5% more to Jewish citizen going to colleges and universities, fired Jewish soldiers, and banned Jewish actors from performing (“Anti-Jewish Legislation in Prewar Germany”). Before the Night of the Broken Glass, the Nuremberg Laws were not as strictly enforced, but after the killing of a German ambassador in Paris, the Nazis enforced the laws with much more force (Groleau, Rick).
The Nazis were ruthless leaders, who would try anything to exterminate the Jews. This includes forbidding them from public life. They did this to try and scare the Jewish citizens away. If they were not able to live in their houses and had none of their belongings they might want to move (“The Aftermath of the Holocaust”) Life after the Night of the Broken Glass was even more difficult. Jewish children, who were previously expelled from museums, public grounds, and swimming pools, were now not able to go to public schools. Jewish children were now completely segregated in Germany, just like their parents (“Kristallnacht”). Jews were also not allowed to collect their insurance money from the pogrom, and the state confiscated the money owed to the Jews. Many Jewish adults committed suicide, while other families tried to flee (“The “Night of the Broken Glass””).
Over the years where the Holocaust took place, Jewish citizens reached a maximum population during the years 1935-1938. With a rising number of Jews living in Germany, the Nazis did not want to see them, so they forced Jews to live in marked-off sections of the towns called ghettos (Bachrach 36). In Germany there was a large population of Jews that needed to be controlled, so they decided to isolate them into these ghettos. The Nazis, after they would conquer a new territory, chose a neighborhood in each town, and surrounded it with barbed-wire fences. After designating a section of town to be surrounded with barbed-wire, Jews were forced from miles around to live there (Altman 156). During the winter Jews living in the Ghettos had a curfew of 8:00, but this was extended to 9:00 during the summer. This restriction would limit the amount of time for the Jewish citizens to converse about topics such as escaping or rioting (“Work in the Concentration Camps”).
Within these ghettos, working was the only way to survive. In the ghettos, there was a limited amount of food, so if you found a job, you might be able to buy more food. When deciding whether or not to allow the segregated Jews outside of the ghettos, they came to the conclusion that if they were completely eliminated from society the economy would become worse (Fitzgerald). Some of the jobs outside of the segregated portions of towns included working in factories, construction projects, on farms, and in mines. These places were owned by German companies, but if you were not in your sleeping quarters by the curfew time you could be punished by death (“Work in the Concentration Camps”). Some of the lucky few who were able to keep some of their belongings bartered them to people outside of the ghettos to buy food. Jewish citizens living in ghettos were forced to wear bright Jewish stars, making them easily identifiable. This would allow a Nazi to know if Jews are trying to break a law. Jews also had to carry passports that identified them with a large ‘J’ (Altman 163).
Living conditions within the ghettos were horrendous, and many Jews died. A lack of sanitation caused widespread epidemics of diseases such as typhus and tuberculosis. The Nazis rationed food to the Jews, which caused starvation. Older people began to collapse in the streets and children had to beg for bread from strangers.The Jews who were too sick to work were sent to concentration camps and were killed (Altman 186). After Jews were deported to one of the "extermination camps," many of them were immediately killed by poisonous gas. Gassing was preferred by the Nazis because it spared the killers the emotional stress of seeing the Jews as they were killed and was considered “cleaner” and more “efficient” (Bachrach 24). Before Kristallnacht, only the Jews that were too sick were transported to a concentration camp but after, the Nazi’s sent as many Jews as possible. The Night of the Broken Glass speed up this process because the Nazis had even more anger towards the Jews and their “crimes” of being Jewish (“The Aftermath of the Holocaust”).
On January 20, 1942, fifteen high-ranking Nazi party and German government leaders gathered for an important meeting in Wannsee, Germany, to discuss the “final solution.” This "final solution" was just a pseudonym for the plan to exterminate all European Jews (“Hitler Comes to Power”). The Nazis used the term "final solution" to hide the fact that they were planning to kill millions of innocent people. The "final solution" was revealed to non-Nazi, German leaders at the Wannsee Conference where they made plans to transportation the Jewish citizens to extermination camps in Poland (“Timeline of Events”). These deportations required the help of all the government leaders to transfer Jews to the concentration camps. (Bachrach 62). The men who met at the Wannsee conference talked about the mass murdering of millions casually (Bachrach 42). “At the same time that ghettos were being emptied, masses of Jews and also Gypsies were transported from the many distant countries occupied or controlled by Germany, including France, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Hungary, Romania, Italy, North Africa, and Greece” (Bachrach 60).
In 1945, Soviet troops found thousands of survivors in the concentration camps suffering from disease and starvation, as well as millions of corpses (“Timeline of Events”). After the Jews were freed, many feared returning to their homes because of the hatred of Jews that was now present throughout Europe. Tens of thousands of homeless survivors of the Holocaust fled west in hopes to find a better life for themselves and any surviving family they had. (“The Aftermath of the Holocaust”). In hopes of creating a better life for their descendents, refugees formed organizations that labored for the establishment of a Jewish state. The State of Israel established in 1948, had displaced Jews streaming into this new state. As many as 170,000 hopeful Jews migrated to Israel by 1953, looking for a better life, and work (Altman 96).