History Sourcework - What impression of Kristallnact does Source C give? Explain your answer

Authors Avatar

History Sourcework: Question B

What impression of Kristallnact does Source C give? Explain your answer

Source C was written by David Buffman, the American consul based in Leipzig. The account he gives derives from what he saw himself and from interviews that he carried out. As an American diplomat he represented America and all its values- democracy, freedom of speech etc. He would have been posted to Germany for probably the last 3-4 years meaning that he witnessed the build up of anti-Semitism and the anti-Semitic laws passed in Germany. In this time he would have met a lot of the Germans in the Diplomat service and gained insight into the German government and its propaganda machine, finding things that were not published into the censored newspapers that the government controlled. The fact that he was a first hand witness makes his statements more reliable, as he was based in Leipzig I presume that he witnessed the nation-wide rioting on the 10th November and not the original Munich riots on the 9th. The notes he took from the witnesses he questioned may or may not have been complexly accurate but as he was a diplomat to whom note taking was a common job, I believe that his notes may have been on the whole very accurate.

Join now!

The account seems to contain a very negative attitude towards the Nazi Party and the party's involvement in Kristallnact. This can be obtained from the text as words such as 'hideous' are used. Words such as this infer the feelings of the author who writes the text. As he watched the buildings burn down around him he probably felt very helpless 'no attempts were made to put out the fires'. These words make the events seem even worse than they were, the language is used in a deliberate way to infer that it was not a spontaneous event, sympathy ...

This is a preview of the whole essay