Kristallnacht (1938)

The Nazi regime led by Adolf Hitler and all the atrocities devised during his regime against the Jews left deep marks on German society. The powerful Germany suffered two consecutive defeats in the great world wars, went through vexing moments in which it had to pay high indemnities and restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, but still managed to recover.

The nation that is now the largest economy in the European Union does not even remotely resemble the country destroyed by the actions of two inconsequential wars. But despite the restructuring, the German government still bears the blame for the anti-Semitic policy of Nazism that ended thousands of lives.

What was Kristallnacht? Every year, on the 9th of November, the German government remembers one of the facts that marked this entire policy of intolerance and persecution that characterized Hitler's government: the

Kristallnacht it is a symbol of the Nazis' fury and their desire to banish Germany's Jewish population entirely.

Recently, Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that these events "were the worst moments in German history", even if the Holocaust that followed was "a more dramatic event". Currently, the country is home to the third largest community in Europe, behind France and Great Britain – with 200,000 people.

The Dawn of Horrors

The murder of a German officer by a young Jew in the city of Paris triggered a wave of attacks targeting the Jewish population. Everything seemed to be a spontaneous reaction of the population against the death of the secretary of the German embassy Ernst vom Rath, but in fact, the actions were planned by Hitler and his collaborators.

Government propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels organized pogroms (slaughter of Jews) before anything happened. In the early hours of November 9th, actions began in which the Nazis attacked and attacked Jews, destroying synagogues, houses and Jewish stores.

See too: Anne Frank: a victim of the Holocaust

The event scheduled by the Nazi party lasted all night and extended throughout the following day. The balance of violence was devastating, about two hundred and fifty synagogues were destroyed, seven thousand Jewish-owned commercial establishments were vandalized and looted, ninety people of Jewish origin were murdered.

If all that wasn't enough, schools, hospitals, cemeteries and homes were invaded and looted. Male German Jews were also arrested for having committed a very serious error in the Nazis' view: having been born as Jews.

Many of the arrested Jews were extradited, but most were sent to local prisons (including women) and concentration camps, where they ended up being exterminated by the fury of a political segregationist.

Jewish commercial establishments were prohibited from operating, except those that were managed by "pure" Germans, the Nazi party imposed restrictions on the Jewish community that ranged from a curfew to the separation of Jews into ghettos, neighborhoods farther away from large centers urban.

The Rise of Segregation

Adolf Hitler took over the government of the Reich (Germany) in 1933, from his first moments as supreme leader of the German people he demonstrated his intolerance towards minorities.

Not only the Jews suffered persecution, but also all those who were considered an inferior race, such as: homosexuals, gypsies, blacks, people with physical disabilities, etc. Hitler was relentless in stating that the Germans descended from a noble race of Aryan warriors and therefore should not mix with this social scum. Kristallnacht and the Holocaust is the result of this anti-Semitic and segregationist policy.

If life for Jews in Germany was already extremely difficult, everything got worse after the Kristallnacht. The German population did not accept living in the same environments as citizens of Jewish origin, in this way way children and teenagers were banned from attending schools, parks, museums and swimming pools public.

Many fathers of families lost their homes and jobs, bank accounts were confiscated as well as all assets in Jewish names. This intensification of persecution led many to commit an act of extreme despair: suicide.

After the pogroms, Jews were forced to clean up all the filth left by German vandals, too. were prohibited from asking insurers to reimburse them for the damage caused during the night of horrors. The Gestapo (secret police of the German state) monitored every step of the Jews.

The social restriction to which they were submitted, in addition to so many atrocities, caused an attempt to escape in mass of the Jewish community from Germany and Austria to other European countries and to the continent American.

Lorena Castro Alves
Graduated in History and Pedagogy