B) This is an account by David Buffman, the American Consul in Leipzig and he wrote this account from his own experiences at the time. Straight away we are given impressions of violence. Buffman uses words such as “ruins …violence…horror of crowds” to convey his feelings of the Nazi responsibility. We can infer from Source “C” that Buffman disagrees with the Nazis views and that he believes that they are responsible. When Buffman says “no attempts were made to put out the fires” it is implying that the fire brigade have been deliberately told not to put the fires out, so this suggests that it was not spontaneous at all and instead it was organised by the Nazis and implicated by the SS. When he describes the crowd as being “obviously horrified”, it seems a bit of a strange reaction considering that if they were too shocked they may be arrested or taken away, so this may be inaccurate. Buffman himself says “the slightest sign of sympathy for the Jews from the public caused fury among the Nazis” which contradicts with the idea of the public being horrified as they would probably be too frightened of the consequences, if they were spotted. Buffman talks about the “hideous part of the so-called ‘spontaneous’ action” which strongly backs up his previous points by suggesting that the events of Kristallnacht were not spontaneous at all but were organised by the Nazis. David Buffman’s account was written from a neutral perspective. He also witnessed the events and he wrote this account shortly after the event, despite the fact that he may endanger himself by doing so, which could make it slightly more reliable. So this man clearly believes that these events were not spontaneous.
C) Source D is written by a German Jew, whose people were receiving harsh treatment from the Nazis at the time, so it may give a biased view. There are mainly facts in this source and not much opinion which could make it slightly more reliable but on the other hand they may have left out some other important facts. This source suggests that Kristallnacht was not spontaneous and that “there had been signs of unrest amongst the masses” weeks before the event and so it was built up tension among the majority of the German people that caused Kristallnacht. Source ‘E’ is a note that was signed by a German civil servant and was sent to the British Consul in Cologne, Germany, so this source may seek to play down the involvement of the Nazis, but on the other hand it could be reliable because he uses negative Nazi images and he also he has taken an enormous risk in writing this note. Source ‘E’ attempts to convey shock of “Most German people”, who are not he says involved in the “plunderings and destruction” of Jewish property. This source also agrees with source ‘C’ as they both agree that the violent events had nothing to do with the majority of the German public. They also agree that the SA men and the SS men were provided with “hammers, axes…fire bombs…house breaking tools and ladders” which explicitly suggests that the events of Kristallnacht was not spontaneous, but in fact planned by the Nazis. So source ‘D’ does not agree with source ‘C’ as it conveys Kristallnacht as a spontaneous event whereas source ‘E’ agrees with source ‘C’ because it portrays Kristallnacht as an organised event by the Nazis .
However the information contained in either of these sources does not affect the likelihood that source ‘C’ is accurate. The bias of sources ‘D’ and ‘E’ means that they cannot justifiably be used to discredit source C.
D) Source ‘F’ is a cartoon published in a Russian newspaper. The cartoon shows Nicholas II, who had encouraged attacks against Jews during his reign, saying to a Nazi that “attacking the Jews did not do me any good, my fascist friend”. In source ‘F’ the Nazi is standing on people and their possessions holding a knife and in source ‘G’ the Nazi is standing over a person clasping a truncheon. Both cartoons are against fascism. The artists are symbolising the Nazis oppression of the people of Germany and how they ruled them with brute force. It is geared towards the Russian people to portray the Germans as stupid. Source ‘F’ is telling the Russian people that fascism is wrong and communism is moral, and the best way to rule. This is shown when it says that Nicholas II and his “family were murdered by communists” which is meant to be a positive image of the communists. Source ‘G’ portrays the German people as innocent and shows the Nazis to be in control of the German public. It shows a Nazi who has probably just killed a German Jew and suggests that the German people are unable to react or speak against the Nazis for fear of arrest or death. Both sources are similar in the way that they both disagree with the persecution of Jews, and the way in which they portray the Nazis as ruthless. Source ‘G’ is published in Britain which is an anti-Nazi country. It is trying to enforce the image that Nazis are evil and are and are ruling Germany with tyranny. Therefore both sources are biased. Source ‘G' is trying to turn Britain against the Nazis perhaps in preparation for war and Source ‘F’ is attempting to turn the Russian people against fascism and try to make them believe communism is just. Both these cartoons support the views of the countries government. This also must mean that both sources agree that the events of Kristallnacht were not spontaneous.
E) In source ‘H’ Goering is blaming Goebbel’s for Kristallnacht. He also says he was against the events because he cared about the economy as he was in charge of Nazi Rearmament policies and so it was his job. Goering is supposedly against the events as he is worried about what Kristallnacht could do to the German economy. Hitler makes some “apologies” on Goebbel’s behalf but still agrees with the events as he says “such events must be allowed to take place” which obviously suggests that Hitler was in favour of Kristallnacht. Source ‘I’ is a conversation between Hitler and Frau Troost shortly after Kristallnacht. It is being reported by Frau Troost 33 years after the actual events. So Frau Troost is a Nazi so even if Hitler said something else, she may have wanted to divert the blame away from the Nazis. Her recollection of the conversation must be very inaccurate as she was very old and her memory may be blurred. It also says that Frau Troost’s husband was Hitler’s favourite architect and so Frau Troost obviously, greatly benefited financially as her husband was his favourite architect so she may be trying to justify and divert the blame from Hitler. Source ‘I’ does not agree with source ‘ H’ at all because in source ‘H’ Hitler is shown to agree with Kristallnacht and in source ‘I’ he is shown to be against Kristallnacht. So both sources ‘H’ and ‘I’ strongly disagree with each other and therefore does not prove that Goering was telling the truth in source ‘H’. Even though source ‘I’ may disagree with source ‘H’, it does not prove anything because source ‘I’ is not reliable and similarly source ‘H’ is unreliable because Goering’s was on trial for his life, so he would obviously deny everything.
F) I do not think that these sources support this theory except sources ‘B’, ‘D’, and ‘I’. Source ‘B’ is very ambiguous to whether it was spontaneous or not. Source ‘D’ is a German Jew experiencing the build up to Kristallnacht. When it says there was a “sign of unrest amongst the masses” which shows that Kristallnacht was spontaneous as there was a tense atmosphere building up between the German people weeks before Kristallnacht which suggests that Kristallnacht was just a spontaneous outburst of built up tension which may have been due to Nazi propaganda against the German Jews. Source ‘I’ is an account given by Frau Troost who will most likely be biased and her account may be inaccurate due to her age. According to her, Hitler says “The people responsible” which is very vague as he could be talking about any one or he may just be trying to divert the blame away from the German people. So these three sources that support Kristallnacht as being spontaneous are all unreliable.
The majority of these sources seem to support the idea that the Nazis were to blame. Sources ‘C’, ‘F’, ‘G’ and ‘H’ all support the idea that Kristallnacht was not spontaneous and that the Nazis were to blame. Source ‘C’ is a neutral account that was written from what Buffman had seen him self and from interviews he carried out at the time of these events. So this is less likely to be biased because it was a primary account and he wrote it at the time, therefore making the account more accurate. When Buffman describes the crowd as being “horrified” he could just be trying to exaggerate the fact that the German people were unaware of the events and to try and portray the Nazis as responsible for the events. Source ‘H’ is Goering’s account of a conversation with Hitler about Kristallnacht, which was given when Goering was on trial for his life. He describes Goebbel’s as destroying so much “Jewish property” which is telling us that Goebbel’s is to blame. But as source a was an account given when Goering was on trial for his life it would be obvious that he would do anything to clear himself so therefore source ‘H’ is unreliable. Source ‘F’ and ‘G’ are both cartoons about Kristallnacht. Source ‘F’ and ‘G’ both lay the blame on the Nazis but both of these sources could be unreliable. Source ‘F’ is unreliable because it may be, being used by the Russians to enforce the belief of communism. Source ‘G’ may be unreliable because the British may be trying to increase the British public’s hatred for the Nazis to prepare for a war. So this suggests that both these sources are inaccurate and only being used by Russia and Britain for personal Gain.
I think that overall more sources support the idea that Kristallnacht was planned by the Nazis. This is because sources ‘C’, ‘F’, ‘G’, ‘H’ and ‘E’ all agree that Kristallnacht was planned. The most convincing things about these sources is that the Nazis themselves blame the Nazis. Source ‘E’ is a Nazi view blaming the Nazis for Kristallnacht which suggests that the source is very reliable. But on the other hand sources ‘F’, ‘G’ and ‘H’ are all very bias and therefore unreliable. There is more evidence to suggest that Kristallnacht was planned rather than it being spontaneous.