In 1935, the Nuremberg laws came into play. These laws stated who was a Jew according to Nazi definition. This meant all people born of at least one Jewish grandparent were now available to be singled out for discrimination. This was appalling as it made abuse and assault become a daily routine against the Jews.
A web of legislation had been spun to trap a now fearful Jewish community, who found it difficult to leave, and even harder to stay in Germany. Those who found the strength to leave did so without haste, but for those who couldn’t leave, mere discrimination was to turn into horrifically violent attacks.
In November 1938 a German diplomat was shot dead by a Jewish student by the name of Herschel Grynszpan. He was horrified at the way his parents had been wrongly treated in Germany, and acted this as his revenge. From this event, some to days later, an awful crisis had emerged. On November 9th, Joseph Goebbels used this incident as an excuse to organise and carry out a nationwide riot against the Jews. This was the night seen as a turning point in Nazi policy. The full extent of Hitler’s and the Nazi’s utter despise was let out and demonstrated by the acts of this mob-attack. The SA organised the rioting, while the Gestapo and the SS made summary and random arrests of Jewish males. The Nazi ‘cultists’ rampaged through every street and ally, ransacking at will. Jewish homes and businesses were utterly ruined, as the SA destroyed and looted for pleasure. Even the holy synagogues were destroyed. These men thought they could even defy the Jewish God and religion they despised it so much. This utterly tragic night lets the pavements and roads of Germany’s cities and towns littered with shattered glass and mounds of debris. 91 Jews were butchered in the rampage, and over 30,000 were beaten and detained in recently constructed concentration camps. This horrific night had showed the German nation that the Jews had to be distinguished from the earth. The civilians either agreed with the Nazi regime or were to scared after this brutal and terrifying event. This night was ever since known as ‘Kristallnacht’: the Night of Broken Glass.
Hitler was bitterly determined to win Lebensraum, ‘living space’, for his ‘superior’ nation. This was essential, he claimed, to satisfy their economic requirements and prove their racial superiority over other ‘lesser’ nations and factions. With this in mind, Hitler went about re-occupying what was ‘rightfully German’ land. In 1939, Hitler, confident because of the lack of resistance made by the allies, invaded Poland.
As Hitler encountered so many Jews in Poland, something had to be decided as to what to do with them all. They simply couldn’t just be herded into concentration camps and left there to rot, so a decision was to be made. In their attempt to find a solution to this, the Nazis took extreme measures. Their racial policies took priority over everything. First they tried to isolate the Jews from common society and force them to emigrate. When this obscene plan failed, they decided on what they termed the Endlosung- the ‘Final Solution’ of the Jewish question. This meant the absolute obliteration of all the Jews in Europe. Every man, woman and child was to be brutally murdered. This was decided at the Wannsee Conference in January 1942. Here, officials debated the Jewish question, and came up with the horrific solution.
Jews in Germany had gone from bad to absolute no worse. There is nothing worse than death, and that is all that remained for the Jews in Germany and the rest of Europe if Hitler had his way. His tyranny would never stop unless opposed. From Hitler’s point of view, the Jews were to be distinguished.
Tom Spence
