The Role and Importance of Kristallnacht

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Main body
Bibliography
Footnotes

Introduction

The role and importance of Kristallnacht influenced historical cause of events and further anti-Semitism movements in Nazi Germany. Kristallnacht marked the wave of pogroms against Jews and started a new government against German Jews. Shortly after the Kristallnacht, Jews, as non-Aryans, were removed from the civil service, judgeships, the legal institutions, teaching positions, cultural and entertainment enterprises, and the mass media. After Kristallnacht, Jews were soon barred from educational establishments including universities and schools, and public sphere: restaurants, hospitals, theaters, museums, and other facilities¹. Jewish businesses were systematically “cleaned” through confiscation by the Nazi authorities.

Main body

During Kristallnacht, Nazi soldiers burn synagogues, and ruin Jewish homes to mistreat families and steal their possessions. About 30,000 people were thrown into concentration camps. The Nazi regime exacted from the Jewish society a fine of 1 billion marks. After Kristallnacht, some people tried to leave Germany, it was usually at the cost of leaving forever all their possessions. Most of those Jews who did were the lucky ones. All methods developed to drive the Jews into ghettos and starvation, which followed in the years of the war, was but the introduction to genocidal murder of German Jews in World War II. Kristallnacht increased envy between Jews and German population and showed real power and authority of the Nazi Germany².

After assuming the chancellorship, Hitler understood that he had to address national economic problems, particularly those caused by the Great Depression. But very important to his aims was the ability of national economy to provide the wherewithal for the development of a strong military force. The pogroms and attacks of Jews allowed Nazi Germany increased its wealth and possessed millions of marks at the expense of Jewish population³. The most striking issues of fascism and Nazi regime were their strong nationalism and their drive for territorial expansion beyond the borders of Germany. Nazis fervently opposed socialism and sought to destroy working-class Jews and Jewish organizations. They repudiated tolerance and democracy and, once in power, abolished non-fascist political parties and crippled or eliminated established institutions. The success of Fascism and anti-Jewish movement depended ultimately on the charisma, the aptitude, and the ruthlessness of outstanding leaders. The role of Kristallnacht was that it created new possibilities for Nazi Germany to fight against Jews openly. The idea of cultural revolution became a myth, even though Hitler took over the power only after Hindenburg, prompted by his archconservative advisors, appointed him, as the politician of the largest political party, to the chancellorship⁴.

Kristallnacht came about as the product of a combination of political and social factors: distinctive national traditions in states that had only lately achieved their nationhood, a comparatively new social system with early beginnings of liberal democracy but strong organized chauvinism⁵, the actions of both fascist and non-fascist leaders, a condition of perceived or actual national defeat or disgrace, distressing socioeconomic and cultural crisis, and a community in which large segments of the Jews people, especially of the lower classes, had lost self-assurance in the existing political system. It is notable that Kristallnacht did not become established as a stating point of war against Jewish population but was supported by fascist ideas and values⁶.

Fascism supported anti-Semitism outside the motherland of Fascism except where, propelled by its perceived task, it was planted by conquest in war and occupation, and then only momentarily. In other countries, including Germany and Italy, the huge cultural, social, and economic changes, accompanied by the changes in political institutions during the first half-century, have made the return of fascism even in a time of severe economic crisis nearly impossible. Kristallnacht professed a number of ideas that carry over from the fascist age–zealous nationalism, belief in the dominance of the power and the pureness of the people, an antipathy toward Jewish values and institutions, and rejection of hegemony and earlier domination–but they frequently favor international contacts and have a concern for the future of Nazi Germany, which they envision as a collaborative new country based on “Eurofascism.” ⁷

Kristallnacht is also very important as it helps researchers to distinguish neofascist intentions from moderate to radical rightist parties, many of which recognize their role within the liberal-democratic order. On the other side, some of the most extremist fascist issues have embraced anti-Semitism as a means of political action⁸. Without the overwhelming experience of World War I and the postwar political, social, economic, and cultural crises, Kristallnacht would have remained a fringe phenomenon or perhaps not have appeared at all. Fascinatingly enough, fascism made its first struggle in political arena and on a national scale after Kristallnacht. Anti-Semitism was important for other states which remained protected from the fascist virus during the aftermath of the war and even during the Great Depression, which brought approximately as much economic and social hardship to Britain and the United States as Germany had experienced⁹.

Kristallnacht changed the idea of struggle and permitted limitary confrontation between Nazi Germany and hews. The population lacked certain preconditions favoring the energetic germination of fascism. Nazis had been consolidated national state for a long time; which Anti-Semitic ideas had established quite deep roots, and their representative political institutions functioned sufficiently; they were economically developed, relatively wealthy, and socially well balanced, with a large segment of well-educated German citizens. Kristallnacht allowed German population achieved their nationhood and, in searching for a balanced idea of national identity, were given to waves of national anger and extremism. Germany lived under a liberal social order in which government performed inadequately at times and democracy had been barely planted. For Jews, Kristallnacht brought the collapse of authoritarian empire, and new social relations were established in the wake of military defeat¹⁰.

In sum, Kristallnacht changed social and personal relations between Jews and German population and opened new possibilities for Nazi Germany to fight against Jews. After Kristallnacht, not all sectors of the German economy benefited from rearmament: consumer-goods industries, so money and financial resources left by Jews were used by Nazi Germany in economic and social spheres. Kristallnacht increased national envy and racial differences between German population and Jews people, and made it impossible for many Jews to live and work in Nazi Germany. Kristallnacht was a turning point in anti-Semitism policies and strategies organized by Hitler against Jewish population. Though rearmament was Hitler’s foremost concern, Hitler proceeded somewhat watchfully toward its achievement lest he alert the Western powers to German violations of the Versailles Treaty and his views on Europe. Kristallnacht changed social order and relations between the Nazi government and Jewish community towards exclusion of Jews from all social spheres of life.

Bibliography

Bard, M. G. 48 Hours of Kristallnacht: Night of Destruction/Dawn of the Holocaust. The Lyons Press; Reprint edition, 2008.

Desbois, P. The Holocaust by Bullets: A Priest’s Journey to Uncover the Truth Behind the Murder of 1.5 Million Jews. Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Fitzgerald, S. Kristallnacht, The Night of Broken Glass: Igniting the Nazi War Against Jews (Snapshots in History) (Library Binding). Compass Point Books, 2008.

Gilbert, M. Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction. Harper Perennial, 2007.

Niewyk, Donald. The Holocaust Wadsworth Publishing; 3rd edition, 2002.

Footnotes

Fitzgerald, S. Kristallnacht, The Night of Broken Glass: Igniting the Nazi War Against Jews (Snapshots in History) (Library Binding). (Compass Point Books, 2008), 54.
Bard, M. G. 48 Hours of Kristallnacht: Night of Destruction/Dawn of the Holocaust. (The Lyons Press; Reprint edition, 2008), 98.
Desbois, P. The Holocaust by Bullets: A Priest’s Journey to Uncover the Truth Behind the Murder of 1.5 Million Jews.( Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 65.
Ibid., 23.
Gilbert, M. Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction. (Harper Perennial, 2007), 65.
Niewyk, Donald. The Holocaust Wadsworth (Publishing; 3rd edition, 2002),.54.
Gilbert, M. Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction. (Harper Perennial, 2007), 23.
Ibid., 76.
Gilbert, M. Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction. (Harper Perennial, 2007), 55.
Bard, M. G. 48 Hours of Kristallnacht: Night of Destruction/Dawn of the Holocaust. (The Lyons Press; Reprint edition, 2008), 54.

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The Role and Importance of Kristallnacht

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