Kristallnacht Research Paper

Nazi official Hermann Goering once said, “Incidentally, I’d like to say again that I would not like to be a Jew in Germany.” With these words, Goering precisely articulated the sentiment regarding the Jewish experience in Nazi Germany. When Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP), also known as the Nazi Party, established the Third Reich, they began the process of segregating, persecuting, deporting, and, eventually, executing the German Jewish population. While early legislature involved boycotting Jewish businesses and determining who was considered a “Jew,” it wasn’t until the November pogrom, later known as Kristallnacht, that anti-Jewish policy became more punitive, with the goal of driving the Jews out of

At the anniversary celebration in Munich, Hitler was said to have been overheard saying, “The SA should be allowed to have its final fling,” with Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels broadly hinting that demonstrations against Jews would not be opposed by the party. As a result, the SA, also known as the storm troopers, and other party radicals, already eager to have their way with the Jews, took to the streets all across Germany and its occupied territories, burning Jewish synagogues, vandalizing and destroying Jewish shops, schools, businesses, and homes. It was the shattered glass that covered the sidewalks and streets that attributed to the event’s title, Kristallnacht, which literally meant “crystal night.” Approximately 91 Jews were killed, with more than 30,000 Jewish men later arrested and sent to concentration camps. This event became a turning point in the Nazi regime’s policy towards the Jews. Kristallnacht ushered in a new era of more intense and repressive anti-Semitic legislature that would eventually lead to the creation of extermination camps and the mass murder of European