Kristallnacht: the Exploitation of Nazi Anti-Semitism

By Caitie Stoughton

Mr. Gavitte

Einstein's Universe

18 March 2005

Throughout the 1930's anti-Semitism raged in Germany. Jews were excluded from their basic civil and economic rights through the Nazi's utilization of anti-Semitic laws, and were pressured from the Nazi party to emigrate due to Aryanization. Whether in the form of laws, pogroms, or physical abuse, Nazi anti-Semitism completely destroyed the lives of German Jews. The largest and most violent act of Nazi anti-Semitism occurred during the November pogrom of 1938, commonly known as Kristallnacht or the night of broken glass. Up until that time there had never been such an all-consuming anti-Semitic pogrom in Germany. Kristallnacht was induced by the assassination of the secretary of the German embassy, Ernst vom Rath, by the hands of a Jew named Herschel Grynszpan. However, the Nazi party exploited the assassination in order to advance their goals of Aryanization in Germany.

In order to understand the extreme anti-Semitism felt in the late 1930's and the events that led up to Kristallnacht it is important to examine not only the ideology of the Nazi party, but also the core beliefs of the party's leader, Adolf Hitler. Although he did not become chancellor of Germany until 1933, Hitler's ideas and wishes for Germany can be viewed in his book Mein Kampf. In it he reveals his belief in "a heroic Germanic race that descended from the ancient Aryans who once swept across Europe, and was battling for survival against racial inferiors" (Perry, Peden, and Laue 370). It is this ideology that drove Hitler to promote anti-Semitism and to apply it to Germany's recent misfortunes, such as their defeat in WWI and their economic collapse in 1929, "the Jew is the rabble-rouser for the complete destruction of Germany. Whatever in the world we read about attacks on Germany, Jews are the source, just as in peace and during the war" (Perry, Peden, and Laue 372).Once Hitler seized power in 1933 he was given the opportunity to impose his anti-Semitic beliefs onto Germany. As chancellor, Hitler had two points in the party pogrom that were of overriding importance for the policy towards Jews: the revocation of equal rights and the ejection of the Jews from economic life (Adam 83). It was not until later however that the issue of Aryanization became widespread and overshadowed the policies of simply civil and economic rights. The reasons for Kristallnacht occurring can be seen in these policies in the form of numerous anti-Semitic laws that were inspired by the Nazi party's beliefs. The first concrete proposals for anti-Jewish legislation were aimed at de-assimilating the Jew form the German (Schleunes 101). The basis of de-assimilation can be seen in Hitler's Mein Kampf when he writes, "the mixing of blood and the resulting lowering of racial cohesion is the sole reason why cultures perish. People do not perish by defeat in war, but by losing the power of resistance inherent in pure blood" (Perry, Peden, and Laue 371). The Nuremberg Laws of April 1933 were the first step in de-assimilating the Jews and would be used as a model for anti-Jewish legislation until late 1935. The Nazi party believed that "the laws offered German Jewry the opportunity to establish itself as a 'national minority'" (Mommsen 230). The two main laws that were created were The Reich Citizenship Law and The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor. Both laws had the goal of segregating the Jews from the rest of the population. The Reich Citizenship Law excluded Jews from the right to Reich citizenship and was one of the first steps in legislatively annihilating the Jews from Germany. The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor prohibited Jews from raising the Reich flag, barred mixed marriages, and made sex between "Aryans" and "non-Aryans" into an offense punishable by law (Mommsen 231). Both Nuremberg Laws revealed the Nazi's aims for de-assimilating the Jews but they also revealed the intensity of anti-Semitism felt in the 1930's. Later, the Nuremberg Laws would be used as "an instrument for the further, systematic persecution of the Jews" (Mommsen 231).Between 1933 and 1938, the Reich instituted a substantial number of measures restricting vocational and occupational activity. The fast and sudden tightening of anti-Jewish measures in the economy was caused in part by the replacement of Economic Minister Hjalmar Schacht by Walther Funk in November 1937. As a result of these measures, there was a constant decline in the number of Jewish businesses between 1933 and 1938. Jews found them selves both having to resort to public welfare and becoming a burden to Jewish welfare agencies. However, the German government largely overestimated Jewish influence and wealth in the economy in the summer of 1938 and as a result, the NSDAP party's resentment towards the Jews grew much more intense (Adam 83).Although the Nuremberg Laws restricted Jews from citizenship and mixing with "Germanic" blood, they proved to the Nazi party that legislatively trying to solve the Jewish problem was not working to the degree that they wished. Jewish department stores still existed, many of the big bankers and major Jewish industrialists were still in business, Jewish firms were still being awarded public contracts, and many Jews still held important positions in the economy (Schleunes 166). It gradually became clear to Germany within the next five years that an alternative solution to legislation would have to be utilized. In 1936, State secretaries in the Interior and Economics Ministries agreed upon several points concerning policy towards Jews in order to eliminate the threat of them gaining new positions in the economy. Two main points were agreed upon that foreshadowed the new movement in government policy and therefore, the Nazi party's eventual involvement in Kristallnacht:(1) Economic activity by Jews could only be allowed in order to enable them to earn their own living, yet their will to emigrate should not be damaged as a result of their economic and political situation. In the final analysis, consideration would also have to be given to carrying out forced emigration as well.(2) Since affluent Jews as a rule are not overly enthusiastic about emigrating, the entire population group should only be allowed limited possibilities for economic activity. (Barkai 103)These two main points proved to be a guideline for the NSDAP who would view them as a tool to speed up the process of Aryanization.

However, physical annihilation of the Jews from Germany was not the Nazi party's current policy towards Jews. Until late 1937 Nazi policy was "determined largely by three basic economic factors: the need for creating employment, the rearmament and foreign exchange problem, and the intricate nature of international finance" (Schleunes 167). For several years the Nazi's had to rely on the Minister of War's advice of non-violence in critical areas of economic and rearmament policy in order to fully recover from the Great Depression (Schleunes 168). However, this caused much disagreement over Nazi policy goals up to 1938, which increased the frustration felt among the NSDAP that would later lead to the agreement that Jews would have to be physically annihilated in order to fulfill Aryanization.

After the assumption of Walther Funk as Economics Minister, Hitler's chief of staff Martin Bormann stepped up the pressure on government policies. As a result Reichsmarschall Herman Goring announced in October 1938 that "'the Jewish question is to be dealt with now using all means' because the Jews had to be ousted from the economy" (Adam 85). The use of "all means" in order to annihilate the Jews from Germany could already be seen from all sides in Nazi Germany. In 1938 "the Jews were attacked simultaneously with a fervor unknown since the heady March and April days of 1933. Boycotts were organized, Aryanization was accelerated, legislation was promulgated, deportation was attempted, and for the first time large numbers of Jews were headed into concentration camps" (Schleunes 216). These sudden political moves were partly influenced by Hitler's desire to make progress towards the solution to the Jewish question after there had been a period of minimal action. For the first time since 1935 Hitler chose the Jews as the main topic of his programmatic address at the Party Labor Convention in September of 1937 (Adam 85).

The year 1938 Germany was caught between utilizing a plan for a gradual exclusion of the Jews or a radical and ruthless plan as a solution to Jewish emigration. Due to Germany's intense measures inflicted towards removing the Jews from the economy in 1937, they had caused the majority of the Jewish population in Germany to lose all capital and therefore, a large number of Jews were left unable to produce the financial means in order to emigrate. The SD realized that "very difficult negotiations would be necessary to push this group within the Jewish population out of Germany" (Adam 88). In order to overcome this dilemma the German government knew that it would be vitally important to both convince Jews that emigration was necessary and to find the financial support for them to emigrate.

It is the roots of the emigration problem of 1938 that reveal the eventual occurrence of the Nazi's involvement in the November pogrom. One of the main conflicts concerning the annihilation of the Jews from Germany was the difficulty of finding countries that would accept Jewish immigrants in large numbers. Adolf Eichmann, a young Austrian, had much influence in developing a solution to this conflict. Eichmann knew that in order to make countries more willing to accept Jewish immigrants the Nazi's anti-Semitic propaganda would have to be toned down. Eichmann believed that anti-Semitic propaganda "served only to defeat the cause of emigration by making Jews that much more undesirable to countries which might accept them" (Schleunes 204). Another conflict that prolonged emigration was the pressure felt by the Reich Emigration Office from the more severe SD and Gestapo. The Nazi attitude towards emigration was torn between formal control and radical control.

In an attempt in producing a solution to Jewish emigration Eichmann drafted a plan in late 1937 for the coordinated emigration of German Jewry in which he stressed would have to be pursued with "ruthless energy" (Schleunes 205). In order to make complete Jewish emigration possible, Eichmann recommended: The founding of a Jewish central organization to take over Jewish welfare. That way the poorer Jews would not become dependent upon the German state (Principle: The rich Jews have to care for the poor ones). Steps on another measure, the creation of a central organization to promote emigration, are already being taken. The purpose of this organization is to bring some uniformity to emigration. Here too, the rich Jew is to provide the money the poor Jew needs for emigration. (Schleunes 205)In response to the problem of finding countries that would accept a large number of Jewish immigrants, Adolf Eichmann produced a Comprehensive Report on the Jewish Problem in January 1937 that "warned that emigration alone might not really be a solution to the Jewish problem" (Schleunes 206). Eichmann suggested that concentrating a large number of immigrants in a few selected areas could lead to the creation of a leadership that would work against Germany's interests. However, Jewish emigration to areas outside Germany continued to be pursued nonetheless. Palestine was thought to be the solution for both its untapped potential and Zionist support. Although it was soon concluded that "the proclamation of a Jewish State or a Jewish-administered Palestine would create for Germany a new enemy" (Schleunes 209).A foreshadowing of the SS's intentions concerning forced emigration was seen in February 1938 when Heinrich Himmler ordered the expulsion of all Jews who were citizens of the Soviet Union from Germany. The Jews were only given seven weeks to leave Germany, which proved to be not enough time. A frustrated Himmler then ordered the arrest of all Soviet Jews still in Germany and had them sent to concentration camps (Schleunes 227). This event both served as a turning point in Nazi policy concerning emigration and as an example of how to solve other emigration problems. Although the Soviet Union Jews posed a problem to the Nazi's solution to the Jewish question, the Polish Jews that resided in Germany in 1938 posed an even larger one, which would directly lead to the occurrence of Kristallnacht in November. The Polish emigration crisis began on March 31, 1938 when the regime of marshal Smigly-Ridz threatened to cancel the citizenship of Polish nationals living outside of Poland. This group of Polish citizens was given until October 31 to have their passports reviewed and stamped in order to be allowed to return to Poland (Barkai 116). However, very few Polish Jews had any intention of actually returning to Poland, and Poland itself had no intention of accepting their return. It was soon apparent to Germany that they would be burdened with a large community of Polish Jews that further prevented them from achieving annihilation of all Jews from Germany.

It was Germany's solution to the problem of Polish Jews that sealed Kristallnacht's fate. In early October it was decided by The Foreign Office that, "the Jews of Polish nationality will, as a precaution, be expelled from the Reich on the shortest possible notice" (Barkai 116). The following day, all Polish Jews were gathered by the Gestapo and were transported by train to the Polish border. However, Poland had prepared to resist the return of their citizens and when they arrived only a small number were accepted back and the thousands left were abandoned at the border, prevented from returning to Poland. An agreement was reached several days later where it was decided that Poland would allow the return of the majority of its citizens and the Nazi's in return would accept the remainder into Germany (Barkai 117). Among the Jews deported was the family of Sendel Grynszpan whose son, Herschel Grynszpan, shot a third secretary in the German embassy in Paris, Ernst vom Rath, on November 7, 1938, claiming that he was avenging his family's suffering at the hands of the Nazi's (Barkai 117).

The reaction of the Nazi party to the shooting of Ernst vom Rath was so immediate and so hateful that it was clearly not only a response to the actions of Herschel Grynszpan but in large part a response to the frustrations felt over the Polish Jews preventing the Nazi's total Aryanization of Germany. The day that the shooting occurred an editorial appeared in the official Nazi newspaper, Volkischer Beobachter, which provoked anti-Semitic rioting on the 8th of November, the day before Kristallnacht officially began. In the article threats made it clear that a new era of Nazi Jewish policy had begun:There is no question that the German people will take the necessary consequences following this latest crime...the shots in the German embassy in Paris will not only be the beginning of a new German attitude towards the Jewish Question but hopefully also a signal to those foreigners, who had not previously realized, that ultimately only international Jew prevents understanding between nations. (Robertson 1)Through Nazi propaganda such as the editorial in Volkischer Beobachter, the German public was made to believe that the assassination of vom Rath was part of an organized conspiracy of "world Jewry" (Robertson 2).

The actual events of Kristallnacht occurred on November 9 and 10, 1938. It started spontaneously as a unified response to Ernst vom Rath's death and as a general consensus was believed not to have been pre-planned by the Nazi party. Instead, the Nazi party by chance exploited the occurrences of Kristallnacht in order to open further perspectives for the future (Adam 90).

The first anti-Jewish riots occurred in the districts of Kerhessen and Magdeburg-Anhalt, and were inspired by vom Rath's death ("Kristallnacht" 1). It was decided by Hitler and reported through the Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels that if the riots spread spontaneously throughout Germany that they were not to be discouraged. The Nazi party leaders "took this to mean that they were to organize demonstrations while making it appear that they had nothing to do with them" (Toland 503). The confusion that followed between the SA and the Nazi party was a result of a lack of clear communication. The SA and Nazi party acted independently of each other; the SA burning Jewish synagogues and destroying Jewish stores, and the Nazi party formulating vague orders for its various associated organizations (Adam 91).

It cannot be disputed that the Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels, had initiated the "pogrom-like disturbances." Motivated in part by propaganda interests, "there is no doubt that he [Goebbels] recognized, instinctively and immediately, what opportunities for mass agitation had been made available as a result of the assassination in Paris, specifically given the state of policy toward Jews in Germany in November 1938" (Adam 92). As a result of Goebbels order for a pogrom, Heinrich Himmler's chief assistant capitalized on the riots; enjoining SD and police to co-operate with the party and SS leaders in organizing the demonstrations. The "organization" led to the death of 36 Jews and the destruction of 814 shops, 171 homes, and 191 synagogues (Toland 505). In conclusion, the death of the German Secretary Ernst vom Rath served as an excuse for the Nazi party to advance their anti-Semitic policies towards the total annihilation of Jews from Germany. The Nazi party's involvement in the events of Kristallnacht was not pre-conceived but instead was a chance opportunity for them to exploit the feelings of hatred and revenge towards Jews that was felt by Germany at the time of the assassination of Ernst vom Rath. Kristallnacht was seen by the Nazi's as an affective way to implement their policies towards Jews and can be viewed as a foreshadowing of the Nazi's shift to the physical annihilation of the Jews from Germany which would to this day, shape the fate of the rest of the world.

Works Cited

Adam, Uwe Dietrich. "How Spontaneous Was the Pogrom?" November 1938. Ed. Walter H. Pehle. Providence, RI: Berg Publishers, Inc., 1991. 73-94.

Barkai, Avraham. "The Fateful Year 1938: The Continuation and Acceleration ofPlunder." November 1938. Ed. Walter H. Pehle. Providence, RI: Berg Publishers, Inc., 1991. 95-122.

Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf. 1943. Trans. Ralph Manheim. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1971."Kristallnacht." Ben Austin's Sociology Corner. Middle Tennessee State University. 2 March 2005 http://www.mtsu.edu/~baustin/knacht.html

Mommsen, Hans. From Weimar to Auschwitz. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1991.

Perry, Peden, and Theodore H. Von Laue. Sources of the Western Tradition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999.

Robertson, Straun. "The 'Reichskristallnact' Pogrom of the 9th/10th November 1938." Straun Robertson Homepage. 3 Feb. 2003. University of Hamburg. 2 March 2005 <http://www.rrz.uni-hamburg.de/rz3a035/pogrom.html>.

Schleunes, Karl A. The Twisted Road to Auschwitz. Chicago, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1970.Toland, John. Adolf Hitler. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1976.