Then on the 15th of September 1935 the Nuremburg laws were introduced. These laws stated that a Jew could not be a citizen of the Reich (i.e. Germany), could not vote, could not marry or have a sexual relationship with anyone of German blood. There were many other laws but these specifically targeted the private lives of Jews and their legal status in the German state. If a Jew didn’t have citizenship, it meant that they were not under the protection of the state and also couldn’t hold any public office, thus reducing their ability to fight a legal battle against the government. Then the laws about not allowing a sexual relationship or marriage to some one of German blood was made to further segregate them from German society, and to keep German blood ‘clean’. This would make the Jews become outcasts in the German community, and like most outcasts, they would start to attract negative criticism and hate from other Germans.
After this set of laws was passed, there were still more laws made to future limit the Jews in their activities. These included having to register all wealth and property to the state, over 15’s having an ID card to show police and prohibiting Jews from all legal and medical practices. This constant ‘layering effect’ of the laws towards Jews helped make the implementation of them easier, as it would usually involve using the foundations of an old law. This also helped by making it less obvious to the Jews what was happening to them, as it slowly deprived them of any rights and made their communities stagnate.
In July 1938 there was a conference of the League of Nations (the predecessor to the UN) hosted by the US in Evian, France. At this conference it was discussed how to help Jews fleeing from Hitler’s tyrannical rule. Though there were a number of suggestions, no country agreed to help the Jews. This lack of international intervention may have spurred Hitler on to more drastic means to his ‘Jewish Problem’. As there was no possibility of any foreign activity, it may have been possible for Hitler to use more violent methods, without any repercussions.
On the 7th November 1938, Ernst Von Rath, third secretary in the German Embassy in Paris, was shot by Herschel Grynszpan, the son of a deported Polish Jew. Rath later dies on the 9th. This will be the trigger for the largest and most violent attack on Jews in the German Reich; Kristallnacht.
Later that day, Germans went out into the street and attacked Jewish Businesses and Synagogues. Many were burned to the ground. One witness, the US consul in Leipzig, describes the streets as,” a positive litter of shattered glass” and also describes when an 18 year old boy was thrown from a three story window onto the street below. He then says how the fire brigade failed to react to any fires on Jewish properties. This partially hints at some Government involvement in the events as the fire brigade would have probably have reacted unless tolled to other wise.
One of the last things the Consul mentions was that, “Many male Jews have sent to concentration camps”. This early mention of concentration camps (not to be confused with later death camps) shows some preparation for an event of this kind. Though it isn’t illegal to own concentration camps, as many European countries have used them before, there was no immediate need for them in Germany. A possible for this explanation was that these were for built future usage, and probably not as just concentration camps.
After this, there was a secret report from the Nazi Supreme Court on the events of Kristallnacht. In it Dr. Goebbles (the Nazi Propaganda Minister) says, “The Führer had decided that such actions were not to be prepared or organised by the Party, but neither were they to be discouraged. The Reich Propaganda Director said that the Party should not appear in public to have started the disturbances, but in reality it should organise them and carry them out in secret.” This passage shows that the Nazis had much more to do with Kristallnacht than it has stated, and shows that it had planned and had been actively involved in the riots. Especially when you take into account that 30,000 Jews were imprisoned by the SS and Gestapo.
Afterwards, the Nazis held the Jewish community responsible for the events of Kristallnacht, and also the assassination of Rath and fined them 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) Reichmarks. It also confiscated any compensation money from the Jews and tolled them that any damages must be paid by Jews themselves. The total death toll from Kristallnacht was estimated at 2,000 or more.
This was a major turning point in the treatment of the Jewish population. Before Kristallnacht Jews were only being persecuted on a local scale and there was little Government involvement in most of these activities. Now the persecution became much more organised, with the dispersion of many male Jews to concentration camps during Kristallnacht, the (secret) organisation of the SS, SA and Gestapo to round up Jews, and the attacking of the Jewish properties, without making it seem like a Government action. It had actually become a widespread Government policy to attack Jews, not just a hap-hazard local affair which was usually arranged by individuals. It is clear, from the change in scale of persecution, that Kristallnacht was the beginning of the Third Reich's deliberate policy of exterminating the Jewish race in Europe.
From this, Nazi treatment of the Jews radically changed. In 1939 Jews had to hand over all gold and silver items, they were denied the right to hold government jobs and, when the war broke out, Jews had a curfew. But also there was more radical talk about how to solve the ‘Jewish Problem’.
Reinhard Heydrich, (Deputy Chief of the SS), instructed the SS Einsatzgruppen (special actions squad) to gather Polish Jews into ghettos near railroads for the future “final goal”. He also ordered that a census was taken and that Jews were instated to implement Nazi policies and decrees.
This had two effects. One it was the start of the ghettoisation program which would then lead on to the “final goal”. Also inside the camps, with some Jews in power and others not, there would be a divide between the two fractions, this meant that the Jews were less able to unite and stand up to the Germans and would make their job of ‘dealing’ with them later on easier, as there would be little resistance.
During the same month, the Nazi newspaper, Der Sürmer, said,” The Jewish people ought to be exterminated root and branch. Then the plague of pests would have disappeared in Poland at one stroke.” This being the Party’s paper would have been edited by a party member and that this piece has been left in the paper shows the Nazis future intensions for their next stage of Jewish persecution. Later that year, forced labour was issued for all Polish Jews between 16 and 40. This effectively made them slaves of the Nazi state. This could then only be followed by one thing, extermination.
When Hitler came to power in 1933, he started a long and slow process which firstly used propaganda, humiliation, limitations in both public and personal lives and indoctrination to both undermine the Jews, and to start the German public to hate Jews. This was then carried on by passing laws and decrees to further segregate Jews from the rest of Germany, thus making a cultural divide. This then over spilled into an all out attack against Jews in Kristallnacht. Where Jews were subject to a widespread violence both against them and their properties. Later Jews were sent to concentration camps, or ghettos in preparation for the “final goal”, this was later to become the “final solution”. This wearing down of the Jewish population was designed to make the progression of this easier and more discreet. With a lack of international interest, the goal of the extermination of the Jewish race in Europe was about to be fulfilled.
