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Section 8: Escalating violence
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Section 8: Escalating Violence
Section at-a-glance
The purpose of this section is to explore essential questions such as:
? What conditions make it possible for neighbor to turn against neighbor?
? What are the consequences for those who are outside of a nation’s universe of obligation?
? What are the range of choices available to someone who is confronting injustice? What
should be considered when deciding what to do (or not to do) in the face of injustice?
When answering these questions, students will deepen their understanding of concepts such as:
 Immigration
 Bystanders
 Perpetrators
 Upstanders
 Resistance
 Opportunism
 Fear
Terms introduced in this section include:
 SS / SA (Nazi security officials)
 Evian Conference
 Kristallnacht
The lesson ideas for this section are built around these core resources:
 One of the following films: Into the Arms of Strangers, I’m Still Here, or America and the
Holocaust
 One or more of these readings in Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human
Behavior: “The Night of the Program,” pp. 263-266; “Taking a Stand,” pp. 268-269; “World
Responses,” pp. 270-272; “The Narrowing Circle,” pp. 272-273
 “No Time to Think,” pp. 189-190 in Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human
Behavior
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Part 1: Overview
Background information
To support the teaching of this section, we strongly recommend reading chapter 6 in the
resource book Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior especially:
“Stateless People,” “The Night of the Pogrom,” “Taking a Stand,” “World Responses,” and “The
Narrowing Circle.”
For more historical background we recommend:
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, “Kristallnacht: The November 1938 Pogroms”
Yad Va Shem, “It Came From Within: 71 Years Since Kristallnacht”
Rationale: What is the purpose of this section? Why teach this material?
Our prior study of Nazi Germany – the laws, the propaganda, the education system, etc. – has
helped us understand how the Nazis, through systematic discrimination and de-humanization,
effectively separated Jews and other targeted groups from membership in German society,
depriving them of legal rights, economic opportunities, religious freedom, and public education
access. In this section, we explore how this legal, social, and economic disenfranchisement laid
the groundwork for state-sanctioned organized violence against Jews, culminating in the
pogrom of November 1938 – an event that became known as Kristallnacht .
The materials and questions we explore in this section encourage us to consider what it means
to be outside a nation’s universe of obligation. For example, the reading “Stateless People” (pp.
258-259), presents a question raised by a delegate at the Evian Conference that took place less
than six months before Kristallnacht. M.J.M. Yepes of Colombia asked, “Can a state . . .
arbitrarily withdraw nationality from a whole class of its citizens, thereby making them stateless
persons whom no country is compelled to receive on its territory?”1 What responsibility, if any,
does a state have to the people living within its borders? What can happen when a nation is not
living up to this responsibility? Scholars suggest that a study of Kristallnacht reveals how
unrestrained violence against innocents can become accepted behavior when the state fails to
protect a group of people. Kristallnacht reveals that in the case of Nazi Germany the state went
even farther than passively accepting violence to actively organizing violence against targeted
groups. Holocaust scholar Richard Rubenstein summarizes the vulnerability of these
communities when he writes, “no person has any rights unless they are guaranteed by an
organized community with the power to defend such rights.”2
The choices made by individuals, groups and nations both during and after Kristallnacht
indicated that Jews could not depend upon any organized group or institution in Germany to
defend them from violence and persecution. The materials suggested in this section, especially
1
2
DM
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the recommended readings from the resource book, bring into sharper focus the role of
individual choices against the backdrop of powerful social forces such as propaganda, fear,
prejudice and opportunism. By 1938, Germany had stripped Jews of their citizenship. Jews
could no longer rely on laws, government officials, or institutions for protection. Nor, could
they rely on an international community that continued to severely restrict immigration quotas,
thus limiting the ability of Jews to leave Germany. Under these conditions, what choices were
available to German Jews at this time? In the context of Nazi Germany, which groups had the
greatest range of choices available to them? What did they do with this responsibility?
Studying Kristallnacht reveals that most Germans passively stood by while Nazi police and
security forces (the SS and SA) burned synagogues, destroyed Jewish property and arrested
men whose only crime was being born a Jew. Some Germans joined in the action, especially by
looting. The materials and activities suggested in this section have been selected to help
students explore the choices made by ordinary Germans in order to build more complex
answers to questions such as: Why did neighbor turn against neighbor? To whom did
individuals, groups, and nations feel responsible? What dilemmas did people confront when
making their decisions? What factors influenced their choices? What are the implications when
the police are the ones that are committing the “crimes”? Is an act a crime, when it is
sanctioned by the government?
All of the concepts we have studied in this course thus far – identity, bureaucracy, conformity,
prejudice, nationalism – are tools that help us address these questions. When thinking about
the factors that give rise to an environment that tolerates, and even encourages, violence
requires us to consider a variety of causal factors: political, economic, psychological (human
behavior), and ideological (antisemitism). Similar issues are with us today as governments and
legal systems still struggle with how to respond when other governments turn against their
own people. When is the right time, if ever, to intervene? As individuals, we are faced with
dilemmas about our responsibilities to those outside of our immediate family or community.
Whose job is it to protect that student who is ostracized from his peers? How can we tell when
labeling people and categorizing them into distinct groups is helpful or harmful? Reflecting
upon the factors in Nazi Germany that laid the foundation for state-sanctioned violence and
nurtured a context where neighbor turned against neighbor, gives us tools we can use to
recognize conditions in our communities that might lead to intolerance and injustice and
extends the focus of our study from understanding to prevention.
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Resources (What materials will help them learn about this topic?)
Resources referred to in the lesson ideas:
Readings and images:
 From Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior
“No Time to Think,” pp. 189-190
“Stateless People,” pp. 258-260
“The Night of the Pogrom,” pp. 263–67
“Taking a Stand,” pp. 268–70
“World Responses,” pp. 270–72
“The Narrowing Circle,” pp. 272–73
Videos and audio-recordings:
 Into the Arms of Strangers
 I’m Still Here
 America and the Holocaust
Handouts:
 Handout 8.1 - Timeline of discrimination against Jews in Nazi Germany (1933-1938)
 Handout 8.2 - Kristallnacht: Excerpt from Klaus's Diary from Salvaged Pages - (pp. 19-23)
 Handout 8.3 - Kristallnacht: The Range of Choices
 Handout 8.4 - Kristallnacht: The Range of Choices – Note-taking guide
Other suggested resources:
Readings and images:
 Chapter 6, Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior
Lesson plans:
 Decision-Making in Times of Injustice - Lesson 13
Facing Today
 A German Dump Holds Shards of a Terrible Night (October 30, 2008)
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Part 2: Lesson ideas
The lesson ideas presented here provide options for different ways you might use the core resources, and additional
materials, to support students’ exploration of the section’s’ essential questions. We encourage you to use these
ideas as a guide to support your own curriculum development.
Lesson idea #19 – Kristallnacht
(Suggested duration: 2 class periods)
Recommended journal and discussion prompts
 What does it mean to have rights? What protects our rights? To what extent were these
ingredients present (or absent) in Nazi Germany?
 Think of a time when you felt safe. What contributed to your feelings of safety? Think of
a time when you felt unsafe. What made you feel unsafe?
 What is an immigration quota? What purpose do they serve? Why do most nations have
them? Under what circumstances, if any, do you think a nation should ease immigration
quotas for a particular group of people?
 What does it mean to have “no time to think?” What conditions might make
independent thought difficult? What could be the consequences when people do not
have time to think through their decisions?
Activity ideas
1. Warm up –To make sense of Kristallnacht, students will need to synthesize the information
they have been learning about Germany in the 1930s and human behavior. Therefore, to
begin this lesson, you might want to give students the opportunity to review the concepts
and history they have learned earlier in this unit.
 Journal writing – As the first wide-scale example of state-sanctioned violence,
Kristallnacht raises questions about safety. Under what conditions do we feel safe?
What role does the government (or government institutions, like the police) play in
contributing to feeling safe (or unsafe)? You might begin this lesson by having students
make a list of conditions in which they feel safe and conditions that make them feel
unsafe. Later in this lesson, they can use the ideas from this list to analyze conditions in
Germany for Jews in the winter of 1938. They can also think about safety from the
perspective of non-Jews living in Nazi Germany.
 Watch excerpt from “Into the Arms of Strangers” (1:00 – 14:40) - The documentary
“Into the Arms of Strangers” tells the story of the kindertransport – the relocation of
nearly 10,000 children from Germany and German-occupied Europe, most of them
Jewish, to Britain that took place between Kristallnacht and the beginning of World War
II. The beginning of this film provides an overview of life in Nazi Germany from the
perspective of middle-class Jewish children. As these child refugees (now adults) share
how their lives slowly changed as a result of Nazi policies, the documentary also
provides relevant historical information, such as Germanys’ annexation of Austria and
the Sudenland. While the film does not represent the lives of all German-Jewish
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children, some of whom grew up in villages and farms as opposed to cities, it does help
us think about how the lives of Jewish children changed under the Nazis. We suggest
stopping this clip at 14:40, before the “children” recall memories of Kristallnacht. To
encourage students to pay attention to new information about this history and their
own emotional reactions to this film, you might ask them to record notes in a twocolumn format. Or, you could use the 3-2-1 strategy, asking students to record 3
historical facts, 2 questions the film raises for them, and one connection to something
they have learned in this course about human behavior.
 K-W-L chart - Students could use these notes and/or their journals as the starting point
for making a class K-W-L chart about Nazi Germany. Students can add new information
to this chart at the end of this lesson.
 Timeline of years 1933-1938- To reinforce prior knowledge, students can record what
they know about Germany starting in 1933, when the Nazis came to power, up until
November 1939 when Kristallnacht took place. Handout 8.1, “Timeline of Nazi Germany
1933-1939,” can be used to supplement students own work. You could also have
students review the information on handout 8.1 using the human timeline strategy.
2. Provide global historical context for Kristallnacht: Before students learn about
Kristallnacht, it is important that they understand international response to Germany’s
treatment of the Jews. Before 1939, hundreds of thousands of Jews were trying to flee
Germany, yet almost every country closed their borders to them. The fact that most Jews
could not legally leave Germany limited the choices they had in response to the violence of
Kristallnacht.
 “Stateless People” - The reading “Stateless People,” on pp. 258-59 in the resource book,
describes how the plight of many Jews was sealed by the refusal of other countries,
including the United States, to increase their immigration quotas. You could use the
levels of questions or text-to-text, text-to-self, text-to-world teaching strategies to
structure students’ reading. Or, you could use this reading as the basis of a lecture you
provide.
 Discussion – It is important that students understand that the fate of the Jews was not
shaped by Germany alone. Had other nations opened their borders to Jewish families,
many children, women and men could have been saved. To help students wrestle with
the consequences when people are “stateless” or “superfluous,” you might ask them to
paraphrase the words of Holocaust scholar Richard Rubenstein, who said this of the
Jewish refugees and other “stateless” people:
They had become superfluous men…What made [them] superfluous was no lack
of ability, intelligence, or potential social usefulness. There were gifted
physicians, lawyers, scholars and technicians among them. Nevertheless, in most
instances no political community had any use for the legitimate employment of
their gifts. This was especially true of the Jewish refugees. . .”3
3
HHB p. 261
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Here are some other questions you might use to prompt a discussion about the ideas in
the reading “Stateless People”:
? What does it mean to be “stateless”?
? What are the consequences of being “stateless”?
? Who has the power to make an individual or group “stateless”?
? When people are not being protected by their own government, then what
individual, group, nation or institution (if any) has the responsibility to protect
them?
? What is an immigration quota? What purpose do they serve? Why do most
nations have them?
? What might be some reasons why nations, including the United States, did not
ease immigration quotas to allow more European Jews into the country – even
when they were aware that Jews were facing unjust discrimination?
? Under what circumstances, if any, do you think a nation should ease immigration
quotas for a particular group of people?
3. Kristallnacht: What happened on the “Night of the Broken Glass”? – Facing History
teachers have found that students are best able to grapple with the ethical dimensions of
Kristallnacht when they read about particular choices made that allowed this violence to
take place. First, they need to know the basic facts of the event. Most importantly,
students need to understand that Kristallnacht was significant because it was the first
official act of state-sanctioned violence. The government ordered these actions to take
place. German police and security offices (the SS and SA) and Nazi officials destroyed Jewish
property, arrested thousands of Jewish men, and burned hundreds of synagogues.
 You could present a brief lecture to help students understand basic facts of Kristallnact.
However, if you have time, we strongly suggest using a documentary, such as one of the
ones listed below, to introduce this event to students. The power of visual images helps
many students understand and retain information.
 “I’m Still Here” – In a short clip from “I’m Still Here” (2:56–4:44), a young
German Jewish boy, Klaus, explains how Kristallnacht changed his life. Handout
8.2 includes excerpts from Klaus’s diary that are used in the film, which students
could read after watching this clip.
 “Into the Arms of Strangers” – If you have already started showing this
documentary and paused at 14:40, you can start again from this spot. For the
next few minutes, “children” recall their experiences on “The Night of the Broken
Glass.”
 “America and the Holocaust” - This documentary provides an in-depth account
of how the United States’ immigration policies impacted Jews who were trying to
escape Nazi violence. The film begins with Kristallnacht, when the plight of Jews
was becoming more urgent. You likely won’t have time to show the whole film,
so we suggest selecting excerpts. Chapter 2 provides background information on
Kristallnacht and begins to describe international response to this significant act
of violence against the Jewish community. Watching this film provides many
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answers to the question, “Why didn’t the Jews leave Germany?” It also
addresses the reasons why leaders of many countries, especially the United
States, closed their borders to most European Jews.
 Another important idea for students to consider is the role of the government in this
event. During Kristallnacht, most of the violence was committed by German police and
security officers (the SS and SA) and local Nazi officials. To help students think about the
role and responsibility of government, consider using one of the following prompts as
the basis for journal writing and/or discussion:
? What responsibility does a government have to protect its own citizens?
? What responsibility does a government have to protect the lives of people living
within its borders, who may not be citizens?
? What happens if government fails to protect residents, or even commits violence
against them? To whom can those people turn for help?
As the class discusses these questions, listen for students to mention the fact that the
Nuremberg laws deprived Jews of citizenship. If they don’t bring up this point, you can
raise it. Help students draw a connection between the Jews’ lack of citizenship status
and the German government’s lack of protection on their behalf.
4. Kristallnacht: The Range of Choices - The purpose of this next step is to help students
understand how Kristallnacht was the result of the decisions made by hundreds of
thousands of ordinary people.
 Step one: Identifying who and what: The resource book includes several readings that
describe different choices made by various individuals at this moment in history:
 “The Night of the Program,” pp. 263-266
 “Taking a Stand,” pp. 268-269
 “World Responses,” pp. 270-272
 “The Narrowing Circle,” pp. 272-273
You could use the jigsaw method to have students learn and share the information in
these readings. Or, you could post these readings around the room and ask students to
read as many as they can. (See the gallery walk teaching strategy for more ideas on how
to structure this activity.) Handout 8.2, “Kristallnacht: The Range of Choices” includes
excerpts of these readings that can be used if students do not have time to read the
longer versions in the resource book. Regardless of which readings you use and how you
structure this activity, it is important for students to have the opportunity to identify
some of the individuals and groups that were involved in this event and the particular
decisions that they made. Handout 8.3 is a note-taking guide they could use for this
exercise.
 Step two: Discussing “Why?” In the book Parallel Journeys, Alfons Heck tells the story
of Frau Marks, the butcher’s wife. On Kristallnacht, after her husband was arrested and
taken away on the back of a truck, Frau Marks “whirled around at the circle of silent
faces staring from the sidewalks and windows, neighbors she had known her whole life,
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and she screamed, ‘Why are you people doing this to us?’”4 This is an important point
for students to think about. Why would neighbors turn against their own neighbors,
simply because they were Jews? Why would a small minority of Germans decide to
resist the Nazis’ policies? What role might the SS and SA have played in their decisions?
Equipped with information from step one, students can now think about the choices
made related to Kristallnacht in the context of the other material they have learned
about Germany in the 1930s.
o You might take a moment to review the concept historical context with
students— the idea that people’s actions are shaped by the place and time in
which they live—and ask students to list aspects of the historical context that
may have influenced the decisions made by Germans at this time (i.e.,
propaganda, education, fear, opportunism, discriminatory laws, antisemitism, a
sense of belonging, living in a dictatorship, etc.).
o Iceberg diagrams can be a useful graphic organizer for this activity because they
make it easier to see the underlying causes of an event.
o After brainstorming the many factors that gave rise to Kristallnacht, you can give
students time to respond to the following prompt in their journals: Given what
you know about Germany in the 1930s, do you think the violence of Kristallnacht
was inevitable (unavoidable)? Why or why not? What would have had to happen
to prevent this violence from occurring? A class discussion of this question can
begin with having volunteers share what they wrote. Or, you could use the four
corners strategy to structure students’ discussion, starting with the statement:
Do you strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree with the following
statement: The violence of Kristallnacht was inevitable (unavoidable). Students
often believe that those who spoke out against Hitler and the Nazis faced certain
imprisonment or even death. In fact, in the early years of the Nazi regime, there
were opportunities for Germans who were not Jews to protest the laws being
enacted. The Nazis monitored public opinion, and when they learned of
reservations among people they were often willing to modify policies and
change the timetable for their implementation. Although it is unclear what
would have happened if more people chose to engage in various forms of
resistance during the first months and years of the regime, the fact that few
decided to protest may reflect on the willingness of most Germans to tacitly
accept Nazi actions. Encourage students to consider how this violence might
have been prevented, had Germans and the world community made different
choices before November 9, 1939.
o Students might recall Erna Kranz from the film The Nazis: Chaos and Conspiracy,
who said, “When the masses were shouting “Heil,” what could one do? You went
with it. We were the ones who went along.” Students can compare their list of
reasons explaining why the majority of Germans obeyed Nazi policies to the list
of reasons they generated at the beginning of class to describe their own
4
D-M
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inaction in the face of injustice. Are there universal factors that encourage
bystander behavior? If so, what are they? At the same time, ask students to
identify the circumstances that made living in Nazi Germany unique, such as the
totalitarian government, the history of antisemitism, and the widescale use of
government-produced propaganda.
Extension: While this lesson focuses on decision-making, it is important to help students keep
in mind that not everyone has the same degree of choices available to them. For example, the
Jewish victims during Kristallnacht had fewer options than their non- Jewish neighbors. Victims
do not choose to be victimized. This is a role forced upon them. As you teach this lesson, look
for opportunities to help students understand these ideas. One such opportunity might be
when students label someone as a victim. At that moment, ask students to take out their
journals and respond to the following questions: Some people say that what makes someone a
victim is that they have limited or no options about how to act. Do you strongly agree, agree,
disagree, or strongly disagree with this statement? While students are discussing their
responses to this question (possibly using the four corners strategy), help them recognize that
during many moments of injustice, and especially during the Holocaust, the victims were
especially vulnerable because the larger society had limited their choices. For example, Jews in
Germany had no citizenship rights. They could not sue someone in court. In fact, after
Kristallnacht, the Jews not only had no way to get paid back for the damage to their homes and
businesses, but they were forced to pay a hefty fine to the German government for the
damage.
5. “No Time to Think” - Another way to help students debrief Kristallnacht is by having them
read “No Time to Think,” on pages 189–91 of the resource book. In this interview, a German
professor describes his experiences living with Nazi policies from 1933 to 1945. His
descriptions reveal how the Nazis were able to mold a citizenry with “new principles”
through a gradual process of “hundreds of little steps,” where the crimes against Jews and
others escalated in “imperceptible” ways. In “No Time to Think,” this German man also
touches on how concepts students have studied throughout this unit, such as fear,
obedience, conformity, peer pressure, opportunism, and propaganda, influenced his
behavior. Ultimately, he is left “compromised beyond repair.”
 As a class, you can read “No Time to Think” aloud. A discussion after this reading might
begin by allowing students to read off one word or phrase that stood out to them.
 Before discussing this text, students to respond to what they have read in writing. Here
are some questions you might use as journal prompts:
? What has happened to the professor’s sense of right and wrong during this time
period? How does he explain how this has happened?
? When this professor was making his decisions about how to act (or not act), who do
you think was most on his mind? Why do you think this?
? How do the ideas in this reading help explain why ordinary people participated in
violence and discrimination against innocent people?
? What warnings does it include? To what extent are these warnings relevant today?
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 The fishbowl or Socratic seminar discussion strategies can be used to structure a
focused conversation about this reading.
Extension: A dramatic way to begin or end students’ reading of “No Time to Think” is to have
the class create a lifted-line poem. Students review the reading and select one line that is most
meaningful, important, or revealing to them. When everyone has selected a line, have them
stand and form a circle. Next, pick one student to begin and a direction (clockwise or
counterclockwise); each student should read his or her line in succession in the direction you’ve
decided. As a follow-up, you may ask students to reflect on any patterns they noticed in the
lines chosen for reading. For variations on this activity, see the found poem teaching strategy.
Assessment ideas (for class work and/or homework)
 Students can write a letter to Frau Marks explaining why they think many of her
neighbors turned against her and the rest of the Jewish community. Through writing
this letter, students have the opportunity to reveal what they have learned about how
multiple factors (i.e. propaganda, conformity, fear, obedience, antisemitism,
opportunism, discriminatory laws, etc.) might have shaped the choices people made on
the night of November 9, 1938.
 Students could turn in a completed iceberg diagram (or related graphic organizer) to
demonstrate what they know about what happened during Kristallnacht as well as the
root causes for this event.
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Handout 8.1: Timeline of discrimination against Jews in Nazi Germany (1933-1938)
JANUARY 30, 1933 – Adolf Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany.
MARCH 22, 1933 - Dachau concentration camp opens for housing political prisoners
APRIL 1, 1933 - Boycott of Jewish shops and businesses
APRIL 7, 1933 - Laws for Reestablishment of the Civil Service barred Jews from holding civil
service, university, and state positions
APRIL 26, 1933 - Gestapo (Nazi secret service) established
MAY 10, 1933 - Public burning of books written by Jews, political dissidents, and others not
approved by the state
AUGUST 2, 1934 - Hitler is elected Führer (Leader and Reich Chancellor). Armed forces must
now swear allegiance to him
MAY 31, 1935 - Jews barred from serving in the German armed forces
SEPTEMBER 15, 1935 - Nuremberg Laws": anti-Jewish racial laws enacted; Jews no longer
considered German citizens; Jews could not marry Aryans
MARCH 3, 1936 - Jewish doctors barred from practicing medicine in German institutions
MARCH 7, 1936 - Germans march into the Rhineland (on the border with France), previously
demilitarized by the Versailles Treaty
JULY 15, 1937 - Buchenwald concentration camp opens
NOVEMBER 1937 – Jewish passports declared ineligible for foreign travel.
APRIL 26, 1938 - Mandatory registration of all property held by Jews inside the Reich
MARCH 13, 1938 - Anschluss (incorporation of Austria): all antisemitic decrees immediately
applied in Austria
JULY 1938 – Evian Conference: Delegates from 32 countries meet in Evian, France to discuss the
increasingly dangerous situation for Jews in German-occupied territories. Most countries,
including the United States and Britain, decided not to extend immigration quotas to allow
more Jews to enter their countries.
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AUGUST 1938 - Adolf Eichmann establishes the Office of Jewish Emigration in Vienna to
increase the pace of forced emigration. Jews are required to add the names Sarah and Israel on
all legal documents, including passports.
AUGUST 3, 1938 - Italy enacts sweeping antisemitic laws
OCTOBER 5, 1938 - Following request by Swiss authorities, Germans mark all Jewish passports
with a large letter "J" to restrict Jews from immigrating to Switzerland
OCTOBER 28, 1938 - 17,000 Polish Jews living in Germany expelled and their property is
confiscated; Poles refused to admit them; 8,000 are stranded. Two of these Jews are the
parents of Herschel Grynszpan.
NOVEMBER 7, 1938 - Herschel Grynszpan assassinates German diplomat Ernst von Rath in Paris.
NOVEMBER 9, 1938 – German state police and security agents (the SS and SA) and Nazi officials
coordinate attacks against Jews across Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland; 200 synagogues
are destroyed; 7,500 Jewish shops are looted; 30,000 male Jews are sent to concentration
camps. Jews are told they must pay millions of dollars for the damage “they” have caused. This
event is called Kristallnacht, “Night of the Broken Glass.”
NOVEMBER 12, 1938 - Decree forcing all Jews to transfer retail businesses to Aryan hands
JANUARY 30, 1939 - Hitler says in a public speech: if war erupts it will mean the extermination
of European Jews
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Handout 8.2: Kristallnacht: Excerpt from Klaus’s Diary from Salvaged Pages
(Excerpted from Salvaged Pages: Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust, pages 19–23.)
12 year-old Klaus Langer, from Essen, Germany, wrote the following words in his diary.
November 11, 1938
The past three days brought significant changes in our lives. On November 7 a German [diplomat] was
assassinated in Paris. He died two days later. The day following, on November 10. . . came the
consequences. At three o’clock the synagogue and the Jewish youth center were put on fire. Then they
began to destroy Jewish businesses. . . . Fires were started at single homes belonging to Jews. At sixthirty in the morning the Gestapo came to our home and arrested Father and Mother. Mother returned
after one and a half hours. Dad remained and was put in prison. . . .
We . . . returned to our neighborhood by two o’clock . . . When I turned into the front yard I saw that the
house was damaged. I walked on glass splinters. . . . I ran into our apartment and found unbelievable
destruction in every room. . . . My parents’ instruments were destroyed, the dishes were broken, the
windows were broken, furniture upturned, the desk was turned over, drawers and mirrors were broken,
and the radio smashed. . . .
In the middle of the night, at 2:30 A.M., the Storm Troopers [also known as the Brownshirts] smashed
windows and threw stones against store shutters. After a few minutes they demanded to be let into the
house. Allegedly they were looking for weapons. After they found no weapons they left. After that no
one was able to go back to sleep. . . . I shall never forget that night. . Books could be written about all
that had happened and about which we now begin to learn more. But, I have to be careful. A new
regulation was issued that the Jews in Germany had to pay one billion reichmarks for restitution. What
for? For the damage the Nazis had done to the Jews in Germany. . . .
November 16, 1938
A number of events occurred since my last entry. First, on November 15, I received a letter from school
with an enclosed notice of dismissal. This became [unnecessary] since that same day an order was
issued that prohibited Jews from attending public schools. . . .
December 3, 1938
Taking up this diary again is not for any pleasant reason. Today, the day of National Solidarity, Jews were
not allowed to go outside from noon until eight at night. Himmler . . . issued an order by which Jews had
to carry photo identity cards. Jews also are not permitted to own driver’s licenses. The Nazis will
probably take radios and telephones from us. This is a horrible affair. Our radio was repaired
and the damaged grand piano was fixed. I hope we can keep it. But one can never know with these
scums.
Glossary:
Reichmarks: the German currency or money (like the U.S. dollar)
Restitution: Making things better after a crime or injury
Himmler: One of the most powerful Nazi politicians after Hitler
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Section 8: Escalating violence
page 15
Handout 8.3 - Kristallnacht: The Range of Choices
Alfons Heck
(From the biography of Alfons Heck, a leader in the Hitler Youth Movement, excerpted
from Parallel Journeys by Eleanor Ayer)
On the afternoon of November 9, 1938, we were on our way home from school when we ran
into small troops of SA and SS men [Nazi police]…We watched open-mouthed as the
men…began to smash the windows of every Jewish business in [our town]. Paul Wolff, a local
carpenter who belonged to the SS, led the biggest troop…One of their major targets was Anton
Blum’s shoe store next to the city hall. Shouting SA men threw hundreds of pairs of shoes into
the street. In minutes they were snatched up and carried home by some of the town’s nicest
families – folks you never dreamed would steal anything.5
It was horribly brutal , but at the same time very exciting to us kids. “Let’s go in and smash
some stuff,” urged my buddy Helmut. With shining eyes, he bent down, picked up a rock and
fired it toward one of the windows. 6
My grandmother found it hard to understand how the police could disregard this massive
destruction… [She said,] “There is no excuse for destroying people’s property, no matter who
they are. I don’t know why the police didn’t arrest those young Nazi louts.”7
5
6
7
(Parallel Journeys, p. 27)
(Parallel Journeys, p. 29)
PJ, 30
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Section 8: Escalating violence
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Handout 8.3 - Kristallnacht: The Range of Choices
Andre
(Excerpted from “Taking a Stand” pp. 268–70 in Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and
Human Behavior)
In November, 1938, twelve year old Andre came home from a youth group meeting. He told his
father that his youth group leader said that everyone was supposed to meet the next day to
throw stones at Jewish stores. Andre said to his father, “I have nothing against the Jews – I
hardly know them – but everyone is going to throw stones. So what should I do?” Andre went
for a walk to help him figure out what he should do. When he came back, he explained his
decision to his parents, “I’ve decided not to throw stones at the Jewish shops. But tomorrow
everyone will say, ‘Andre, the son of X, did not take part, he refused to throw stones!’ They will
turn against you. What are you going to do?” His father was proud and relieved. He said that
the following day, the family would leave Germany. And that is what they did.
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Section 8: Escalating violence
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Handout 8.3 - Kristallnacht: The Range of Choices
Melita Maschmann
(Excerpted from “Taking a Stand,” pp. 268–70 in Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and
Human Behavior)
Melita Maschmann lived in a small suburb of Berlin and knew nothing of Kristallnacht until the
next morning. As she picked her way through the broken glass on her way to work, she asked a
policeman what had happened. She describes what happened next:
I went on my way shaking my head. For the space of a second I was clearly aware that
something terrible had happened there. Something frighteningly brutal. But almost at once I
switched over to accepting what had happened as over and done with, and avoiding critical
reflection. I said to myself: the Jews are the enemies of the New Germany. Last night they had a
taste of what this means... I forced the memory of it out of my consciousness as quickly as
possible. As the years went by, I grew better and better at switching off quickly in this manner
on similar occasions.
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Section 8: Escalating violence
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Handout 8.3 - Kristallnacht: The Range of Choices
Frederic Morton
(Excerpted from “The Night of the Pogrom,” pp. 263–67 in Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and
Human Behavior)
The writer Frederic Morton recalls his experience in Vienna. Austria (which had been taken over
by Germany) on November 9, 1938:
The day began with a thudding through my pillow. Jolts waked me….By that time we’d gone to
the window facing the street. At the house entrance two storm troopers lit cigarettes for each
other. Their comrades were smashing the synagogue on the floor below us, tossing out a debris
of Torahs [holy scripture] and pews. “Oh, my God!” my mother said.
…
The doorbell rang. Once. Ever since the Anschluss, we’d rung our doorbell twice in quick
succession to signal that this was a harmless ringing, not the dreaded one. Now the dreaded
ring had come.
…
My brother, a tiny blond eight-year old, an Aryan-looking doll, went. A minute later he
returned. Behind him towered some ten storm troopers with heavy pickaxes. They were young
and bright-faced with excitement…. “House search,” the leader said. “Don’t move.” …They
yanked out every drawer in every one of our chests and cupboards, and tossed each in the air.
They let the cutlery jangle across the floor, the clothes scatter, and stepped over the mess to
fling the next drawer. Their exuberance was amazing. Amazing, that none of them raised an axe
to split our skulls. “We might be back,” the leader said.
…
We did not speak or move or breathe until we heard their boots against the pavement. “I am
going to the office,” my father said. “Breitel might help.” Breitel, the Reich commissar in my
father’s costume-jewelry factory, was a “good” Nazi. Once he’d said we should come to him if
there was trouble. My father left. …I began to pick up clothes, when the doorbell rang again. It
was my father. “I have two minutes.” “What?” my mother said. But she knew. His eyes had
become glass. “There was another crew waiting for me downstairs. They gave me two
minutes.” Now I broke down….
….
Four months later he rang our doorbell twice, skull shaven, skeletal, released from
Dachau [a prison], somehow alive.
Glossary:
Anschluss – Germany’s annexation of Austria in March, 1938.
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Section 8: Escalating violence
page 19
Handout 8.3 - Kristallnacht: The Range of Choices
(Excerpted from “World Responses” pp. 270–72 in Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust
and Human Behavior)
On November 15, six days after Kristallnacht, President Franklin D. Roosevelt opened a press
conference by stating, “The news of the last few days from Germany has deeply shocked public
opinion in the United States…I myself could scarcely believe that such things could occur in a
twentieth-century civilization.” As punishment to Germany, he announced that the United
States was withdrawing its ambassador to Germany. But, he did not offer to help the thousands
of Jews now trying desperately to leave Germany.
Few Americans criticized Roosevelt’s stand. According to a poll taken at the time, 72 percent
did not want more Jewish refugees in the United States. In the 1930s Americans were more
concerned with unemployment at home than with stateless Jews in Europe. Although many
were willing to accept a few famous writers, artists, and scientists who happened to be Jewish,
they were less willing to let in thousands of ordinary Jews. Then in February 1939, Senator
Robert Wagner of New York and Representative Edith Nourse Rogers of Massachusetts
sponsored a bill that would bypass the immigration laws and temporarily admit 20,000 Jewish
children who would stay in the country only until it was safe for them to return home. As most
were too young to work, they would not take away jobs from Americans. Furthermore, their
stay would not cost taxpayers a penny. Various Jewish groups had agreed to assume financial
responsibility for the children. Yet the bill encountered strong opposition was never passed.
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Section 8: Escalating violence
page 20
Handout 8.4 - Kristallnacht: The Range of Choices
Note-taking guide
As you read about different responses to Kristallnacht, complete this chart.
Reading Name of
# or
individual or
name group
How did this person or
group respond to
Kristallnacht? What role did
he/she/they play?
What might have been the
consequences of this
decision?
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