The major gaps within this piece are what happened before the rioting that night. If he is referring to the 10th of November there is no account for the 9th and the build up of the Anti-Semitic laws within Germany. He does not say how the SS and SA received there housebreaking tools or who gave them the tools and their orders; this leads questions to the reliability of the source from which he received the information regarding kristallnact.
Source D is a description of events in the countryside by a German Jew in the weeks leading up to kristallnact. It was described as being written in November, but not when in November. This description could have been written before kristallnact in which case it would have a higher chance of being true to the events that occurred, or after kristallnact it may have been written after kristallnact in which case hindsight and emotion may have influenced the description given here.
The source claims that there was ''signs of unrest amongst the masses'' this source is interpreting the emotions of other people, the accuracy of this statement is in question as no one can accurately describe how the entire population of Germany felt at the time, the author may be making assumptions in order to support his views. However the anti-semantic policies being introduced via the Nuremberg laws are mentioned as well as the 'Jews not wanted' signs which were starting to become commonplace. The author may have wanted to exaggerate these claims if the description was written after kristallnact to gain sympathy abroad, terms such as 'acts of terror' are used to imply this. However these claims cannot be reliably researched into as there was no documentation of violence against the Jews before kristallnact, though violence was displayed against the Jews by the Nazi party during the invasion of Austria as the Nazi's tried to force the Jews out of Germany.
The authors motive behind the scribing of this document was to simply give a Jewish account of the events that were occurring in Nazi German countermanding the propaganda that was constructed by the nazi party about the anti Semitism that was present in rural Germany.
The authenticity of his account could be doubted as it lacks preciseness only briefly describing each event. Bitterness and hatred for the Nazi Party could have influenced the context of the piece, this hatred being strengthened and increasing the chances of slight maliciousness if the description was written after kristallnact which the chances of are high has there were only 9 days in November before kristallnact.
There are quite a few gaps in this piece mainly due to the lack of preciseness. The mention of the ''various signs of unrest'' what was the signs, how strong and definite were they? The worsening of the conditions in the countryside is not described either to what extent they were worsening or how spread out was the hostility in the countryside? This lack of detail all leads to doubts on the reliability of the description. Where was the author living is another question, he may have been living in a city away from the events he is describing and so may not have had an accurate point of view. If he lived in the country far from the cities how did he know that the problem was occurring in all of Germany and if he was far from the cities where all the rioting occurred how did he know of kristallnact? These impressions lead to a slight edge of doubt concerning the description.
Source E was written by a 'civil servant' someone ho never identified themselves in fear of retribution from the Gestapo. It was sent to the British consul on the 12th of November which meant that the events were fresh on everybody's mind. What experience of the events that night the 'servant' had or if he was even there we do not know.
'' I feel the need to present you a true report'' this use of language and tone indicates that his own thoughts and opinions. He makes assumptions such as claiming that '' most German people have nothing to do with these riots and burning's '' does this person know the entire German population. The opinion that the Nazi Party arranged and carried out these acts of atrocities is what the author is trying to get across.
There are many possible motives for why this note was written and sent to the consul. The first could be hatred and anger for what happened to thousands on Kristallnact which drove them to tell what happened really. Guilt may be another. The civil service would have compiled the list of names, which he describes as being given to the SA officers. Maybe he compiled that list that cost so many their lives and now guilt ridden he writes his confession down onto a note and gives it to the enemy. These two possibilities are ones that would produce a truthful and accurate story. However these theories are based upon the assumption that this was a civil servant writing the note. It may have been that a dissident who wanted to create trouble between the British and the German's wrote this note.
There is obvious bias contained within this note as it blames the Nazi party for all the events that occurred during Kristallnact. The Police state that Germany was under at the time meant that every order that the police received had to have come from the Nazi Party.
From other sources and my own knowledge this note seems to be completely true. The SA was given housebreaking tools. There could be no other feasible way that this man could have obtained the information other than from being a High Ranking Nazi Official in which case he would have had to have been a loyal follower of Hitler or as I believe he was a civil servant who was caught up in it all.
The only gap in the note is whether the note is about the riots on the 8th when Von Roth died or the 9th during what is known commonly as Kristallnact. Apart from that the note is fairly concise.
In conclusion I believe that overall sources D and E make the account in source C seem more likely. Source D questions whether it was just the SA on its own as it depicts the local German people as being extremely hostile towards Jews, but confirms C in the mention f the troubles and unrest that had been brewing up. Source E goes further by talking about the SA being involved and being provided with various implements to aid their mission. The only disagreement is that there is no mention of the SS being involved and no mention of the activities of the fire brigade. Overall though these two sources give a very strong case for Source C.
J.Harratt
