Name __________________________
Date: ________________
Section: 12.1
12.2
(circle one)
Modern World History
HW 3.11: The Final Solution
Do Now
1. What do you think of when you think of the word “Holocaust”?
2. What do you think of when you think of the word “genocide”?
3. What do you already know (or think you know) about how Jews were treated in
Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945? List as many specific examples as possible.
Classwork
Carefully read and annotate the following description of Kristallnacht, a violent attack on
German Jews that marked a turning point for anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany. You may
want to use a dictionary – feel free to take one from the shelf. Then, complete the following
on a separate sheet of paper labeled “Classwork: The Final Solution.” This will be submitted
for a classwork grade.
1. Define (don’t identify) the following terms:
a. Pogrom
b. Synagogue
c. Antisemitic
d. Spontaneous
2. Identify (date, definition, significance) the following term:
a. Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass)
3. Answer the following questions in complete sentences:
a. How did the death of Ernst vom Rath lead to Kristallnacht?
b. What happened during Kristallnacht?
c. Were the Kristallnacht pogroms really spontaneous uprisings by ordinary
Germans? If not, who actually organized them and carried them out?
d. Why is Kristallnacht called the “Night of Broken Glass”?
e. How did life change for Jewish people in Germany after Kristallnacht? Cite
specific examples of new laws and practices.
f. How did ordinary Germans react to Kristallnacht? How might their reaction
affect Nazi policy towards Jews in the future? Explain your reasoning.
Kristallnacht: A Nationwide Pogrom
Kristallnacht, literally, "Night of Crystal," is often referred to as the "Night of Broken Glass."
The name refers to the wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms which took place on November
9 and 10, 1938, throughout Germany, annexed Austria, and in areas of the Sudetenland in
Czechoslovakia recently occupied by German troops.
Instigated primarily by Nazi Party officials and members of the SA (commonly known as
Storm Troopers) and Hitler Youth, Kristallnacht owes its name to the shards of shattered
glass that lined German streets in the wake of the pogrom—broken glass from the windows
of synagogues, homes, and Jewish-owned businesses plundered and destroyed during the
violence.
In its aftermath, German officials announced that Kristallnacht had erupted as a
spontaneous outburst of public sentiment in response to the assassination of Ernst vom
Rath, a German embassy official stationed in Paris. Herschel Grynszpan, a 17-year-old
Polish Jew, had shot the diplomat on November 7, 1938. A few days earlier, German
authorities had expelled thousands of Jews of Polish citizenship living in Germany from the
Reich; Grynszpan had received news that his parents, residents in Germany since 1911,
were among them. A desperate Grynszpan apparently sought revenge for his family's
precarious circumstances by appearing at the German embassy and shooting the
diplomatic official assigned to assist him.
Vom Rath died on November 9, 1938, two days after the shooting. The day happened to
coincide with the anniversary of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, an important date in the
National Socialist calendar. The Nazi Party leadership, assembled in Munich for the
commemoration, chose to use the occasion as a pretext to launch a night of antisemitic
excesses. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, a chief instigator of the pogrom, intimated
to the convened Nazi 'Old Guard' that 'World Jewry' had conspired to commit the
assassination and announced that, "the Führer has decided that … demonstrations should
not be prepared or organized by the Party, but insofar as they erupt spontaneously, they
are not to be hampered."
Goebbels' words appear to have been taken as a command for unleashing the pogrom. After
his speech, the assembled regional Party leaders issued instructions to their local offices.
Violence began to erupt in various parts of the Reich throughout the late evening and early
morning hours of November 9–10. At 1:20 a.m. on November 10, Reinhard Heydrich, in his
capacity as head of the Security Police, sent an urgent telegram to headquarters and
stations of the State Police and to SA leaders in their various districts, which contained
directives regarding the riots. SA and Hitler Youth units throughout Germany and its
annexed territories engaged in the destruction of Jewish-owned homes and businesses;
members of many units wore civilian clothes to support the fiction that the disturbances
were expressions of 'outraged public reaction.'
Despite the outward appearance of spontaneous violence, and the local cast which the
pogrom took on in various regions throughout the Reich, the central orders Heydrich
relayed gave specific instructions: the "spontaneous" rioters were to take no measures
endangering non-Jewish German life or property; they were not to subject foreigners (even
Jewish foreigners) to violence; and they were to remove all synagogue archives prior to
vandalizing synagogues and other properties of the Jewish communities, and to transfer
that archival material to the Security Service. The orders also indicated that police officials
should arrest as many Jews as local jails could hold, preferably young, healthy men.
The rioters destroyed 267 synagogues throughout Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland.
Many synagogues burned throughout the night, in full view of the public and of local
firefighters, who had received orders to intervene only to prevent flames from spreading to
nearby buildings. SA and Hitler Youth members across the country shattered the shop
windows of an estimated 7,500 Jewish-owned commercial establishments, and looted their
wares. Jewish cemeteries became a particular object of desecration in many regions.
The pogrom proved especially destructive in Berlin and Vienna, home to the two largest
Jewish communities in the German Reich. Mobs of SA men roamed the streets, attacking
Jews in their houses and forcing Jews they encountered to perform acts of public
humiliation. Although murder did not figure in the central directives, Kristallnacht claimed
the lives of at least 91 Jews between 9 and 10 November. Police records of the period
document a high number of rapes and of suicides in the aftermath of the violence.
As the pogrom spread, units of the SS and Gestapo (Secret State Police), following
Heydrich's instructions, arrested up to 30,000 Jewish males, and transferred most of them
from local prisons to Dachau, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen, and other concentration camps.
Significantly, Kristallnacht marks the first instance in which the Nazi regime incarcerated
Jews on a massive scale simply on the basis of their ethnicity. Hundreds died in the camps
as a result of the brutal treatment they endured; most obtained release over the next three
months on the condition that they begin the process of emigration from Germany. Indeed,
the effects of Kristallnacht would serve as a spur to the emigration of Jews from Germany in
the months to come.
In the immediate aftermath of the pogrom, many German leaders criticized the extensive
material losses produced by the antisemitic riots, pointing out that if nothing were done to
intervene, German insurance companies—not Jewish-owned businesses—would have to
carry the costs of the damages. Nevertheless, top Party leaders decided to use the
opportunity to introduce measures to eliminate Jews and perceived Jewish influence from
the German economic sphere. The German government made an immediate
pronouncement that “the Jews” themselves were to blame for the pogrom and imposed a
punitive fine of one billion Reichsmark (some 400 million US dollars at 1938 rates) on the
German Jewish community. The Reich government confiscated all insurance payouts to
Jews whose businesses and homes were looted or destroyed, leaving the Jewish owners
personally responsible for the cost of all repairs.
In the weeks that followed, the German government promulgated dozens of laws and
decrees designed to deprive Jews of their property and of their means of livelihood. Many
of these laws enforced “Aryanization” policy—the transfer of Jewish-owned enterprises
and property to “Aryan” ownership, usually for a fraction of their true value. Ensuing
legislation barred Jews, already ineligible for employment in the public sector, from
practicing most professions in the private sector, and made further strides in removing
Jews from public life. German education officials expelled Jewish children still attending
German schools. German Jews lost their right to hold a driver's license or own an
automobile; legislation fixed restrictions on access to public transport. Jews could no
longer gain admittance to “German” theaters, movie cinemas, or concert halls.
The events of Kristallnacht represented one of the most important turning points in
National Socialist antisemitic policy. Historians have noted that after the pogrom, antiJewish policy was concentrated more and more concretely into the hands of the SS.
Moreover, the passivity with which most German civilians responded to the violence
signaled to the Nazi regime that the German public was prepared for more radical
measures. The Nazi regime expanded and radicalized measures aimed at removing Jews
entirely from German economic and social life in the forthcoming years, moving eventually
towards policies of forced emigration, and finally towards the realization of a Germany
“free of Jews” (judenrein) by deportation of the Jewish population “to the East.”
Thus, Kristallnacht figures as an essential turning point in Nazi Germany's persecution of
Jews, which culminated in the attempt to annihilate the European Jews.
Homework
Carefully read and annotate the following text. Then, complete the following, on a separate
sheet of paper.
1. Add identifications (date, definition, significance) for the following terms to the key
terms section of your binder:
a. Final Solution
b. Ghettos (date: 1939-1945)
c. Operation Reinhard
2. Answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper in complete sentences:
a. How did Nazis isolate Jews from the rest of the population in Poland? How
might this strategy help them annihilate the Jewish population?
b. What was the “Jewish question” that Hermann Goering aimed to “solve”?
(Hint: Think back to the Nazi ideology of anti-Semitism.)
c. What was Operation Reinhard? What “solution” to the “Jewish question” did
it offer?
The Final Solution
The Nazis frequently used euphemistic language to disguise the true nature of their crimes.
They used the term “Final Solution” to refer to their plan to annihilate the Jewish people. It
is not known when the leaders of Nazi Germany definitively decided to implement the
"Final Solution." The genocide, or mass destruction, of the Jews was the culmination of a
decade of increasingly severe discriminatory measures.
Under the rule of Adolf Hitler, the persecution and segregation of Jews was implemented in
stages. After the Nazi party achieved power in Germany in 1933, its state-sponsored racism
led to anti-Jewish legislation, economic boycotts, and the violence of the Kristallnacht
("Night of Broken Glass") pogroms, all of which aimed to systematically isolate Jews from
society and drive them out of the country.
Anti-Jewish Policy Escalates
After the September 1939 German invasion of Poland (the beginning of World War II), antiJewish policy escalated to the imprisonment and eventual murder of European Jewry. The
Nazis first established ghettos (enclosed areas designed to isolate and control the Jews) in
the Generalgouvernement (a territory in central and eastern Poland overseen by a German
civilian government) and the Warthegau (an area of western Poland annexed to Germany).
Polish and western European Jews were deported to these ghettos where they lived in
overcrowded and unsanitary conditions with inadequate food.
Massive Killing Operations Begin
After the June 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union, SS and police units (acting as
mobile killing units) began massive killing operations aimed at entire Jewish communities.
By autumn 1941, the SS and police introduced mobile gas vans. These paneled trucks had
exhaust pipes reconfigured to pump poisonous carbon monoxide gas into sealed spaces,
killing those locked within. They were designed to complement ongoing shooting
operations.
On July 17, 1941, four weeks after the invasion of the Soviet Union, Hitler tasked SS chief
Heinrich Himmler with responsibility for all security matters in the occupied Soviet Union.
Hitler gave Himmler broad authority to physically eliminate any perceived threats to
permanent German rule. Two weeks later, on July 31, 1941, Nazi leader Hermann Goering
authorized SS General Reinhard Heydrich to make preparations for the implementation of a
"complete solution of the Jewish question."
Killing Centers
In the autumn of 1941, SS chief Heinrich Himmler assigned German General Odilo
Globocnik (SS and police leader for the Lublin District) with the implementation of a plan to
systematically murder the Jews of the Generalgouvernement. The code name Operation
Reinhard was eventually given to this plan, named after Heydrich (who was assassinated
by Czech partisans in May 1942). As part of Operation Reinhard, Nazi leaders established
three killing centers in Poland -- Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka -- with the sole purpose of
the mass murder of Jews.
The Majdanek camp served from time to time as a killing site for Jews residing in the
Generalgouvernement. In its gas chambers, the SS killed tens of thousands of Jews,
primarily forced laborers too weak to work. The SS and police killed at least 152,000
people, mostly Jews, but also a few thousand Roma (Gypsies), in gas vans at the Chelmno
killing center about thirty miles northwest of Lodz. In the spring of 1942, Himmler
designated Auschwitz II (Auschwitz-Birkenau) as a killing facility. SS authorities murdered
approximately one million Jews from various European countries at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
German SS and police murdered nearly 2,700,000 Jews in the killing centers either by
asphyxiation with poison gas or by shooting. In its entirety, the "Final Solution" called for
the murder of all European Jews by gassing, shooting, and other means. Approximately six
million Jewish men, women, and children were killed during the Holocaust -- two-thirds of
the Jews living in Europe before World War II.