Night Of The Broken Glass Dbq Essay

“Women clapping their hands and screaming with glee while respectable mothers held up their babies to see the fun” (source D from the packet) Kristallnacht, also referred to as The Night of the Broken Glass, took place in November during the year 1938. The quotation displays how normalized the destruction of Jews was to typical working class German citizens. It acquired this title because Jewish shops and homes were destroyed, specifically, the windows of these shops were smashed to pieces in great acts of anger. The German citizens who were terrorizing the Jews had an audience, Germans crowded the streets to watch Jewish homes light up in flames. The killing of Jews was so normalized by Hitler and his public humiliation of this minority of

The Night of the Broken Glass was the first time it was seen as publicly acceptable to harm Jews. Laws were put in place to restrict Jews and confine them to their homes. These laws were put in place by the Nazi Government. “[Joseph] Goebbels could be heard explaining about an attack he was going to launch in a few hours time. Hitler approved because he squealed with delight…” (source H) The government They were not allowed to interact with Aryans and were instructed to turn Jews in to the SS, Hitler’s private army, if they were breaking any of these laws. This had conflicting effects on the citizens because neighbors who had once been close friends were now ordered to be their enemies. The Nazis were able to dictate who the Germans we friendly with and interacted with on a daily basis. This ultimate control was confusing for the Germans because they were used to being led in war or government situations, however, they were not yet accustomed to having this many restrictions on their personal lives. It was not only incredibly confining for the Jews, but also for the typical German citizens who were suddenly restricted when the had not been before. The Jews had an extensive amount of horrible treatment from not only the Nazis but the German citizens, yet these Aryan people were abruptly confined and they had not experienced

There was a major lack of world response from the main powers who would have been able to contradict the Nazi’s corrupt policies. For example, the English were sympathetic towards the Jews, but they took no action in attempt to pull Germany out of their downwards spiral. The Jewish Refugee Bill had the potential to allow thousands of Jewish children into the US, but the bill did not pass mainly because the US were not keen on the idea of allowing Jewish immigrants into their country. This opinion was amplified because the Great Depression was taking place during Nazi Germany. The lack of reaction is widely discussed given that there were countless events occurring each day of unspeakable brutality. Questions such as, “Could an event of this magnitude have occurred without the knowledge of the Allies?” (jewishvirtuallibrary.org) It has been recorded that in America in 1942 most newspapers reported details of the Holocaust. They reported stories from the genocide of Jews, and published the numbers of Jews killed. Generally the articles containing this information were hidden deep within the newspapers and were just a couple inches long. These reports were often denied or unconfirmed by the US