What impression of kristallnacht does source C
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Introduction
Question B What impression of kristallnacht does source C give? Source C is an account by David Buffman, a member of the American embassy in Leipzig. He wrote his account at the time of kristallnacht, which was on the 10th of November 1938, from what he had seen and interviews which he carried out. From this source we get the impression that it was the Nazis who organised kristallnacht and that the SS men and stormtroopers, who were not in uniform and armed with axes hammers and fire bombs, started to attack and torch Jewish homes, shops and synagogues. As it was the Nazis who carried out the attacks, it was most likely that it would have been Hitler and his associates who plotted kristallnacht, the night of broken glass. ...read more.
Middle
Nethertheless, David Buffman was a worker for the American Embassy, and at the time they were no feuds between Germany and America, so why would he lie? This means that we have no reason to believe the evidence is untrue. David based his account on what he saw, and tells us of the violence that the Nazis used. We have to take into account that he is telling us what he saw, so he could have been biased towards the Jewish community. But yet again he had no reason to be biased towards them. You could argue that the source creates a sympathetic picture for the Jews, as they were the innocent victims. ...read more.
Conclusion
We know because he says "when viewing the ruins and the violence, all of the local crowds were horrified by the Nazis' acts". Despite their anger, the German public could do nothing because if any sympathy was shown towards the Jews by the German public, they had the problem of the Nazis, as the Nazis hated the Jews. We know this as he says "the slightest sign of sympathy for the Jews from the public caused fury amongst the Nazis" Overall the source gives us the impression that the Nazis were horrible people, and that they organised kristallnacht, the night of broken glass. I feel that the source is reliable as David had nothing to lie about, but it would have been better if he had told us the name of his reliable source so we could check on it. 1 Connor Richardson ...read more.
This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Germany 1918-1939 section.
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