Source F is one of two cartoons which I will be comparing together. Firstly, source F is the one showing Tsar Nicholas II (who was murdered by communists in 1917) warning a self indulgent Nazi officer “Attacking the Jews did not do me any good, my Fascist friend”. The message of this cartoon is that the mistreatment of the Jews can only result in negative consequences. The Nazi officer is stereotyped as being a barbaric, primitive and greedy character to generate negative feelings towards the Nazi party. The cartoon was originally published in a Russian newspaper which means that the cartoon is part of the Russian propaganda showing that the Nazis were as bad as the Tsar and in a way, warning them not to go and join the Nazi parties. This cartoon is implying that the Nazi party were behind the Kristallnacht and it was not a spontaneous event by the German people.
Source G is a cartoon depicting a German woman tied up and gagged whilst watching a Nazi officer attacking Jewish people. The woman represents the German people, they want to help but they are being forced in to keeping quiet about the truth of the attacks. The Nazi officer is shown as being very aggressive and barbaric causing destruction in the background. The cartoon is telling us that the Nazi party were completely behind the attack on Kristallnacht and how the German people were desperate to help but were being forced into keeping quite and not putting blame upon the Nazi's. This picture was published in a British magazine which was the British propaganda and they were saying that don’t despise all German people, it wasn’t them, hate the Nazis, they are the ones killing the Jews. Both cartoon pictures are implying the same type of message, the Nazis are the ones at fault of the events of Kristallnacht, look how bad they are.
Source C is an account written by David Buffman, the American Consul in Germany at the time of Kristallnacht. He describes how the violence started on 10 November and that the German people were horrified by the acts of the Nazi's violence. He goes on to describe how the SS men and Stormtroopers not in uniform were provided with hammers, axes and fire bombs. The statement that the SS men and Stormtroopers were not in uniform implies that the Nazi party did not want it to be apparent that they were generating racial hatred towards the Jewish people. David Buffman could be seen as an unbiased source which would make this source reliable and crucial to answer who were behind the attacks on Kristallnacht.
Source E was a note signed by a civil servant who had sent a note to the British Consul in Cologne, Germany on the 12th of November, 1938. In this source it clearly states that most German people had nothing to do with the events that happened over Kristallnacht, and supports the claim made in source C about the fact that SA men had been provided with house breaking tools, axes and ladders to attack the Jewish buildings. They had been given a list of names to find the buildings exactly where the Jewish people lived. The person who wrote this account works for the Nazi government because they were a civil servant, and he must have been a Nazi because he wouldn’t have been hired as a civil servant if he wasn’t one or didn’t want to become one. As this note was anonymous, it is not entirely reliable, on the other hand, it was written by a Nazi so there was no need for them to lie and it was anonymous so no one would know who wrote it. This source can be seen as biased or unbiased easily, because one can fault the other. It’s not a particularly clear source.
Source A is the summary of a dinner party on the night of Kristallnacht that was attended by Goebbels and Hitler. The source is written by Fritz Hesse in 1954 which was 16 years after the wave of violence, the lateness of the source actually makes the source more reliable as it was after the rule of the Nazi regime and the truth could be exposed without persecution. Hitler is described to have “squealed with delight and slapped his thigh with enthusiasm” which shows that Hitler had wanted Kristallnacht to happen and that Goebbels had arranged it to gain favour from Hitler. Fritz Hesse was attending the dinner party and was an eye witness to this happening; this makes the source more reliable and accurate. But, you can disagree and think because of the time lapse difference, this source can be untrue because Fritz Hesse’s account may have been muddled up because some details may have been forgotten and some of the major facts may have been mixed up.
Source H tells us the Hitler was horrified by the events of Kristallnacht. The source is about how Kristallnacht ruined the economic plans Goering had been working to improve, the destruction of Jewish properties and businesses did this. This source could be seen as biased and unreliable as Goering was giving evidence whilst being tried for war crimes at Nuremberg. This source is telling us how the events of Kristallnacht were not supported by the Nazi party or Hitler and was caused by the people of Germany. The source was written after the Nazi regime and also Goebbels and Hitler were both dead. The source tells us about Kristallnacht itself is that there was a lot of damage to Jewish owned properties and shops. Goering tells us how Hitler was horrified about the events of Kristallnacht.
Finally, I am now studying Source D which is vague to who was behind the attacks of Kristallnacht as it was written about the weeks before not after the wave of violence. The source was written by a German Jew which would be biased into generating sympathy towards the Jewish people as they feel that they had been targeted. Within the source there is a description of there being “unrest amongst the masses”, which could possibly mean the German people but, could also be interpreted in other ways. We are told that there had been racial hatred for the Jews even before Kristallnacht as there were signs saying 'Jews not wanted' in shops and cinemas. The source is primary making the facts stated in the source likely to be truthful but, the opinions expression may still be untrue and biased because the fact it was written by a German Jew who was one of the targets by the Nazis, so they were writing a first witness account. On the other hand, there is the fact that is biased towards the Jews because they just wanted to say and show that the Nazis were wrong and should be gone with. Source D has a very vague meaning and does not state clearly who actually was responsible for the events that happened on the night of Kristallnacht.
After studying all of the sources i have arrived to the conclusion that Kristallnacht was not completely a spontaneous event by the German people but, also hugely participated by the Nazi party. The sources that state that the German people were behind the attacks were on the whole biased and from unreliable writers apart from Source B. The remainder of the sources tell us that the Nazi party were behind the wave of violence on Kristallnacht, many of the sources also imply that the Nazi's did not want to be seen as responsible for the violence. Due to the reliability of Source B i have to take into account that the German people participated in the wave of violence of Kristallnacht but, largely i can see from the sources that it was not a spontaneous wave of violence but a planned attack by the Nazi party on the Jewish people.