Kristallnacht

On November 9th nineteen thirty-eight (Kristallnacht) over ninety Jews were killed and thirty-thousand were taken away from their families and sent to concentration camps.
This night was called Kristallnacht or ‘the Night of Crystals’ (Night of the Broken Glass) because the next morning the floors were covered in glass. Kristallnacht is the night where Nazi stormtroopers smashed Jewish homes and businesses and burned down a hundred and ninety-one synagogues. All Jews were forced to sell their businesses at a bargain price to German ‘Aryans’; people with blue eyes, blonde hair and ‘pure blood’.

Kristallnacht was a horrible event caused by several smaller problems. One of the biggest things that lead to this even was fear from both the Jews and the German Nazis. Most people only obeyed Hitler because they were terrified of what may happen to them or their family if they didn’t. This fear lead to people helping and supporting the Nazis or quietly letting Hitler get away with the mass murder of Jews. Kristallnacht’s targets were the Jews and Nazis all supported this because of brainwash through propaganda. Kristallnacht was also caused by laws, scapegoating and peer pressure. Peer pressure comes in when people feel like they need to participate in destructing Jewish places because they see everyone else doing that. The main turning point that lead to this even was a seventeen year old Jewish boy; Hershel Grynszpan who shot a Nazi official because he was scared and upset that he couldn’t help his family. After this, the Nazis wanted their revenge and decided that every Jew would have to pay for this.

Many people who miraculously survived the holocaust have written stories and made video blogs about their life. When I read or listen to their stories I just can’t believe that something like the holocaust could actually happen. Sonia Weitz, a girl who survived the holocaust and was lucky enough to always have her sister with her, told us about her journey. She lived through some of the worst extermination and labour camps and witnessed some of the worst sights. After hearing Sonia’s story I was really upset to know exactly what happened to all the Jews in the concentration and death camps less than a century ago. I was shocked to hear about a Commandant who used prisoners and live targets just to practice his aim, and who would shoot anyone if he didn’t think they were working hard enough. Sonia told us about her sixteen day trip in a kettle car, how she was beat by a Nazi woman for wanting food, and how she lived through everything with a life threatening disease; typhus. I think that the most shocking thing is that many other European countries knew what was happening in Germany, but yet they did nothing to help prevent this. At the end of the holocaust over six million Jews were killed and even today, some people refuse to believe that the holocaust ever existed.