Source C explains that although the Nazi press described Kristallnacht as ‘a spontaneous wave of anger’ the truth was that SS men and Stormtroopers carried out the violence. He uses his own experience of the events to comment and also information he discovered from interviews which he carried out. He felt that the most hideous part of Kristallnacht was the arrest and transportation to concentration camps of male German Jews. This confirms that the Nazis were definitely to blame for the violence and he even states that the local crowds were ‘obviously horrified by the Nazi’s acts’ which proves the German people were not involved and were nothing but dismayed by the goings on.
Source E also claims that the Nazis were to blame for Kristallnacht and that most German people had nothing to do with the riots and burnings. The opening sentence immediately indicates that lies had been told already because it says ‘I feel the need to present to you a true report.’ The information given in this source corresponds to that given in Source C that housebreaking weapons were provided to the Nazis in order to cause destruction. Overall this source claims that Kristallnacht was organised by the Nazis and that the German people were not involved.
Source F is a cartoon about Kristallnacht portraying the message that the Nazis should not persecute the Jews because Tsar Nicholas II (1894-1917) had done in Russia and Communists murdered him and his family in 1918. This cartoon does not involve the German people at all but by telling Hitler not to persecute the Jews it implies that the Nazis were responsible for the events of Kristallnacht.
Source G is a British cartoon about Kristallnacht illustrating how helpless the German people were against the actions of the Nazis. A uniformed man has an injured, possibly dead person between his legs representing a Jew. This cartoon is trying to say that the Nazis were responsible for Kristallnacht and that even though the German people were concerned about the Nazi’s actions, they were powerless to stop them.
Source H is the final source which claims that Kristallnacht was not a spontaneous event by the German people. It is an account by Goering given during his trial for war crimes at Nuremberg in 1945-6. He claims that Goebbels was responsible for the events of Kristallnacht. He felt Goebbels was very inconsiderate in his actions by not taking into account just what damage to the German economy he could cause by damaging all the Jewish property.
The final three sources indicate that Kristallnacht was a spontaneous act of violence by the German people against the Jews.
Source B says that anti-Jewish demonstrations had taken place on 9 November and implies that Kristallnacht was part of these events. Once informed of these events Hitler apparently decided that such demonstrations were not to be discouraged if they started spontaneously which tells us that the Nazis had nothing to do with the organisation of Kristallnacht. This may not be a reliable source as it was written by the Nazi Party Supreme Court maybe in an attempt to take the blame away from themselves, yet the message is still clear, the German people were to blame for Kristallnacht.
Source D was written before Kristallnacht by a German Jew, he describes how life was becoming progressively worse in Germany for Jews. He indicates that as the situation for Jews worsened, the German people had carried out acts of terror on Jews. He may have exaggerated the events because of his situation as a persecuted person. There is no mention of the Nazis in this source but the details given about signs in shops and terrorism in the countryside seem alike to what the Nazis actually did. However, because the Nazis are not mentioned in this source, it must be presumed that the ordinary people were the ones to blame for the anti-Semitism behaviour.
Finally, Source I recalls what Hitler said to Frau Troost shortly after Kristallnacht, although the source was written in 1971. Hitler says that ‘The people responsible have destroyed everything for me’ which suggests that he was not to blame for the events and that Kristallnacht caused nothing but hassle for him. By using such a general term as ‘the people’ he does not blame anyone in particular, yet the only interpretation I can make from this is that Hitler blames the German people for Kristallnacht. An indication that the events were spontaneous is given when Hitler says ‘And then this happened!’ which suggests he knew nothing about any plans. The reliability of this source is not great because the writer may have lied in her report in an attempt to protect her husband who was a favourite architect of Hitler and therefore may have been accused of war crimes. Overall this source claims that Hitler felt the German people were to be blamed for the spontaneous events.
Overall I can draw the conclusion that these sources do not support the claim that ‘Kristallnacht was a spontaneous event by the German people although a few unreliable sources try to convince us that this claim is true.
