Link between 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom and 2018 Chemnitz
Ian P. Johnson
November 9, 2018
Rioting in Chemnitz was reminiscent of how the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom unfolded in Nazi Germany, says historian Wolfgang Benz. Friday marks the 80th anniversary of the Night of Broken Glass violence against Jews.
As Germany on Friday remembers the 80th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom against Jews, Wolfgang Benz, the author of many books documenting the Nazi era, said events in the eastern city of Chemnitz this year showed "how easily a pogrom can develop."
Unrest directed at persons perceived as foreign erupted in Chemnitz on August 26 after a fatal stabbing. One night later, suspected neo-Nazis threw stones and bottles at a Jewish restaurant in Chemnitz. Its proprietor said he was told to "vanish from Germany."
"That was not state-instigated, but it was a persistent hunting of people," Benz told the German dpa news agency, referring to the ongoing debate on how officials defined Chemnitz' weekend unrest.
Benz said some in Germany appeared to have learned little from the atrocities of the Nazi regimeImage: picture-alliance/dpa/T. Brakemeier
Initially, that rioting was not focused on Jews, Benz said, "but it shows how easily a pogrom can develop, and how easily a mob can be formed and an emotional surge generated."
From discrimination against Jews to persecution
On November 9, 1938, nearly six years after Hitler assumed power, Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister, seized on a two-day-old shooting in Paris of a Nazi diplomat and addresses Nazi party adherents in a Munich beer cellar — as noted in his diary — before telephoning attack orders to Nazi paramilitary units across German territory.
Inside Europe: Reflections on Kristallnacht
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The pogrom raged until 13 November.
Estimates on the number of people killed vary from between several hundred to 1,300 people being murdered or driven to suicide — far more than the 91 then officially stated shortly after the attacks. Some 1,400 synagogues and prayer rooms, and 7,500 Jewish businesses were destroyed. Some 30,000 people picked out as Jews, mostly men, were taken to concentration camps following Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass.
"The 9th of November, for which the term Kristallnacht was then quickly adopted, was a turning point: from discrimination against Jews in Germany to persecution," Benz told the KNA Catholic news agency.
Over 1,000 synagogues in Germany and Austria were destroyed during the Kristallnacht pogromImage: gemeinfrei
"One can say that the Holocaust began on the 9th of November 1938. From then on, violence against Jews was publicly and officially endorsed," said Benz, born in 1941, whose early studies on extremism took him to Munich's Ludwig-Maximilians University in the 1960s and later to direct the Berlin Technical University'sCenter for Research on Antisemitism, from 1990 until 2011.
"In 1938, the state staged a rabble-rousing pogrom against a minority … people let themselves be inveigled by state propaganda, against fellow citizens, to turn against neighbors and business friends," Benz said.
"Everyone knew exactly what was happening," he stated.
Looking back on the Nazis' anti-Jewish pogroms
On November 9-10, 1938, Nazi Germany launched an anti-Jewish pogrom throughout the German Empire. The November Pogrom was the start of the systematic annihilation of Jewish life in Europe.
Image: picture-alliance/AP/M. Schreiber
What happened on November 9-10, 1938?
Anti-Semitic mobs, led by SA paramilitaries, went on rampages throughout Nazi Germany. Synagogues like this one in the eastern city of Chemnitz and other Jewish-owned property were destroyed, and Jews were subject to public humiliation and arrested. According to official records, at least 91 Jews were killed — though the real death toll was likely much higher.
Image: picture alliance
What's behind the name?
The street violence against German Jews is known by a variety of names. Berliners called it Kristallnacht, from which the English "Night of Broken Glass" is derived. It recalls the shards of shattered glass from the windows of synagogues, homes and Jewish-owned businesses. Nowadays, in German, it's also common to speak of the "pogrom night" or the "November pogroms."
Image: picture alliance/akg-images
What was the official reason for the pogrom?
The event that provided the excuse for the violence was the murder of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan, a 17-year-old Polish Jew. Vom Rath was shot at close range at the German Embassy in Paris on November 7, and died days later. Grynszpan wasn't executed for the crime; no one knows whether he survived the Third Reich or died in a concentration camp.
Image: picture-alliance/Imagno/Schostal Archiv
How did the violence start?
After vom Rath's death, Adolf Hitler gave Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels permission to launch the pogrom. Violence had already broken out in some places, and Goebbels gave a speech indicating the Nazis would not quash any "spontaneous" protests against the Jews. The SS were instructed to allow "only such measures as do not entail any danger to German lives and property."
Image: dpa/everettcollection
Was the violence an expression of popular anger?
No — that was just the official Nazi party line, but no one believed it. Constant references to "operations" and "measures" in Nazi documents clearly indicate the violence was planned ahead of time. It's unclear what ordinary Germans thought of the mayhem. There is evidence of popular disapproval, but the fact that the couple in the left of this picture appear to be laughing also speaks volumes.
In line with their racist ideology, the Nazis wanted to intimidate Jews into voluntarily leaving Germany. To this end, Jews were often paraded through the streets and humiliated, as seen in this image. Their persecutors were also motivated by economic interests. Jews fleeing the Third Reich were charged extortionate "emigration levies," and their property was often confiscated.
Image: gemeinfrei
Did the pogrom serve the Nazis' purpose?
After the widespread violence German Jews were under no illusions about Nazi intentions, and those who could left the country. But such naked aggression played badly in the foreign press and offended many Germans' desire for order. Later, further anti-Jewish measures took more bureaucratic forms, such as the requirement that Jews wear a visible yellow Star of David stitched to their clothing.
Image: gemeinfrei
What was the immediate aftermath?
After the pogroms, the Nazi leadership instituted a whole raft of anti-Jewish measures, including a levy to help pay for the damage of November 9-10, 1938. The second-most powerful man in the Third Reich at the time, Hermann Göring, famously remarked: "I would not want to be a Jew in Germany."
Image: AP
What is Kristallnacht's place in history?
In 1938, the beginning of what became known as the Holocaust was still two years away. But there is an obvious line of continuity from the pogrom to the mass murder of European Jews, in which the Nazi leadership would continue to develop and intensify their anti-Semitic hatred. In the words of one contemporary historian, the pogrom was a "prelude to genocide."
Image: Imago
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'Hitler began as a populist'
Asked about present-day Germany, Benz told KNA he saw the far-right opposition Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as regressive: "absolutely resistant against enlightenment and liberal accomplishments, without which our modern form of life would no longer be conceivable."
"That [voter] adherence to this movement is rising shows that not much has been learned from history," added Benz. "Adolf Hitler as mass criminal began his career as a populist."
Germany will mark the anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom at ceremonies across the country on Friday.