The Nazi Germany Sourcebook by Stackelberg Roderick; Winkle Sally A.;

Author:Stackelberg, Roderick; Winkle, Sally A.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 170682
Publisher: Routledge

The November Pogrom, 1938

With preparations for war in full swing by 1938, leading Nazis pressured for an escalation of measures to force Jews to emigrate. The SS, in particular, wanted to make sure that there would be no threat to internal unity in case of war. The Nazis launched a systematic campaign to deprive Jews of their means of livelihood and force them to leave. Jews were not, however, permitted to take any of their assets with them, thus making it more difficult for them to gain admission as refugees in other countries. In July 1938 Jews were barred by law from participation in numerous sectors of the economy. Jewish physicians and lawyers were prohibited from serving non-Jewish patients or clients. For purposes of easier identification, Jews who did not have recognizably Jewish first names were forced to add the middle names Sarah or Israel in August 1938. At the request of the Swiss government, a “J” was stamped into their passports in October 1938.

Persecution of the Jews culminated in unprecedented violence in the night of 9–10 November 1938. The assassination of a German diplomat in Paris two days earlier (he died on the 9th) provided the pretext for the Nazis to unleash the pogrom. Disguised as a spontaneous popular outburst, the assault on Jewish synagogues, businesses, and homes was organized and carried out by party members while the police and SS were instructed not to interfere except to prevent looting and the destruction of German property. The orders (below) issued by Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller (1900–45) and the chief of the Security Service (SD) Reinhard Heydrich clearly reveal the extent to which the pogrom was planned in advance.

Legislative action followed two days later under the authority of Hermann Goering, the virtual economic dictator of Germany as Commissioner of the Four-Year Plan. Jews were held responsible for the damage and assessed a collective fine of 1 billion Marks, collected by the Ministry of Finance from individuals in periodic installments based on their ability to pay. The most far-reaching result of the pogrom was mandatory “Aryanization” of all Jewish businesses and the total exclusion of Jews from German economic life. Jews were also barred from entering parks, forests, theaters, concerts, and cultural exhibits and from attending German schools.

In the wake of the pogrom about 30,000 Jewish men were interned in concentration camps with their release made conditional on proof of arrangements to emigrate. Emboldened by their successes in foreign policy and by Germany’s growing military and economic strength, Nazi leaders apparently no longer felt they needed to take world opinion or foreign reactions into account (although foreign Jews were excluded from harassment by Heydrich’s directive). Hitler’s commitment to eastern expansion increased the likelihood of war in the near future and gave added urgency to the expulsion of the Jews, whose influence could be expected to weaken popular support for the war effort. While the official goal of the regime remained to force Jews to leave Germany, the turn to open, officially-sponsored

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