Kristallnacht Research Paper

Kristallnacht was the beginning of it all and 17 year old Jewish boy Herschel Grynzpan gave Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s chief of Propaganda an excuse to organize it. Kristallnacht is considered to be a pivotal turning point for the Jews in Germany and is also now known as the actual beginning of “the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi Regime and its collaborators.”(www.ushmm.org/wic/en/article.php?Mo duleId=10005143). If Kristallnacht didn’t occur or had occurred differently, then the fate of the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust could have been different. After Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933 the discrimination of Jews had begun. Jews were

After Kristallnacht the Jews were forced to clean the debris out of the burned synagogues. These empty spaces would eventually be turned into parking lots. The Jews had to watch their houses, their synagogues and Torah scrolls all burn down in front of their eyes. They also had to watch their husbands, sons and get arrested and sent off to concentration camps. Even thorough all these hard times the Jews stayed strong and still had faith that good times will come because at this point no one believed that Hitler as the Chancellor of Germany would last long. The Jewish population of Germany was extremely proud to be German citizens, until Kristallnacht had occurred. Kristallnacht changed many people’s perspectives about many different things but they were all still proud to be Jewish. “Jews were proud citizens of Germany, and thousands had fought and died for their country in World War I. These patriots may have had the most difficult time comprehending the horror of Kristallnacht and what had become of the country they had fought so hard to protect.” (Bard,

In 1933 there was a one day boycott against Jews, a law passed that restricted Kosher Butchering, and Jewish children also faced restrictions in public schools. In 1935 the Nuremburg laws were passed. The Nuremburg laws deprived Jews of the citizenship, land and money. It also limited the Jewish community in professions. Many shops also had signs denoting “Jews not welcome”. This fulfills the promise Hitler made in 1919 to get rid of all “Undesirables”. “Undesirables” include Jews, Homosexuals, the mentally disabled, the physically disabled, communists, Gypsies and all political opponents. On October 28, 1938, 17,000 Jews that were Polish citizens who had been living in Germany for many years were arrested and sent back to Poland. The Jews had no previous warning and were forced to leave immediately. Poland however refused to accept them, leaving Germany to dump the Polish Jews on Poland’s border. One of the deportees happened to be Zindel Grynzpan. Zindel Grynzpan was born in western Poland but later moved to Hanover, Germany. Zindel’s son Hershel who had been living in Paris with his uncle was angered when he found out his father had been deported from Germany then dumped on Poland’s border. Angered Hershel went to the German Embassy in Paris on November 7, 1938 aiming to assassinate the German ambassador to France.