History Coursework – which of these sources would a historian studying kristallnacht find the more useful?
Looking at source A and considering not only its accuracy and reliability but also its provenance it is easy to see that this source is highly reliable. This is due to the writer and also cross referencing this account with various other sources.
The writer, Fritz Hesse, was a journalist at during the reign of Hitler who worked for the Nazis. So not would a journalist be trained to pick up information and take notes of significant events, of which kristallnacht was one, he would also have had these notes to recall his memory when his account of the events was later written in 1954. Also it may at first seem like him being a Nazi journalist may question the sources validity however in the Nazi reign more Germans worked as a party of the Nazi leadership. This actually increases the reliability of the source because he is speaking negatively about the Nazis. I also know from looking at other sources and information about the Nazis that it would have been impossible for this journalist to write that account in the Nazis reign for fear of being arrested and put into a concentration camp or being beaten and tortured.