Kristallnacht Analysis

Polarisation Definition: A sharp division, as of a population or group, into opposing factions. (“Polarisation”) THE NAME KRISTALLNACHT Kristallnacht was given its name due to the shattered and broken glass strewn about the streets of Germany. This glass came from the pillaged and destroyed synagogues, homes and Jewish owned businesses that were torn apart. ERNST VOM RATH The violence was instigated primarily by Nazi Party officials and members of the SA (Sturmabteilungen) and Hitler Youth. In its aftermath, German officials announced that Kristallnacht had erupted as a spontaneous outburst of public outrage and hatred in response to the recent assassination of Ernst vom Rath. Vom Rath was a German embassy official stationed in Paris. Herschel Grynszpan, a 17-year-old Polish Jew, had assassinated the diplomat on November 7, 1938. Before this, German authorities had expelled thousands of Polish Jews living in Germany from the Reich. Herschel had received news that his parents were among those being deported. …show more content…
These Jews were isolated and forgotten in the town of Zbaszyn in the border region between Poland and Germany. Herschel already living illegally in Paris sought revenge against Germany by assassinating an official at the embassy. Vom Rath died on November 9, 1938, two days after the shooting. The Nazi Party leadership, assembled in Munich for the commemoration, chose to use the occasion as a pretext to launch a night of antisemitic attacks upon the Jewish population. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, the primary instigator of the Kristallnacht pogrom, suggested to the Nazis that 'World Jewry' had conspired to commit the assassination. He announced that the progrom should occur rapidly and is not to be planned by the state and/or any