World History

A Concise Unit on the Holocaust

 

 

 

The typical world history survey textbook is only allowed a very limited space in dealing with any issue (textbooks will contain material in lengths varying from several paragraphs to generally not more than four pages); given that the teaching of the Holocaust is mandated by the State of Illinois, this lesson plan was created to serve as a supplement to district-purchased resources in expanding student access to information directly relating to the causes and results of the Shoah.

 

Historical Context:  The Holocaust, a term popularized by Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, was one of several genocides carried out in the 20th Century.  Wiesel used the term, which means a wholly burnt offering or sacrifice, to refer to the period 1933-45 when the Nazis and their collaborators deliberately and intentionally murdered 2/3 of European Jewry as well as perhaps six million non-Jews.  However, the events of the Shoah did not take place across Europe and North Africa without a tremendous amount of ambivalence from a tremendous amount of people.  As the German war machine swept across the European continent, the Allies focused on winning the war, at all costs.  The by-product of this strategy was the loss of 12 million lives in the Nazi camps and by Nazi hands in the ghettos, forests, and killing fields.  But was it solely at Nazi hands?

 

Rationale To Teach:  The Shoah (Hebrew for catastrophe) stands as one of the most heinous acts of the 20th Century.  It is an event that has shocked the world both in the horrors that were perpetrated against its victims, but sadly too, for the fact that its symptoms still exist and impede the world’s ability to truly learn from its lessons.  It is unique in many regards; it also continues to be both misinterpreted and misrepresented.  Today, our American society is full of people who don’t want to get involved, those who look the other way at injustice, or simply mind their own affairs.  When faced with a problem it is much easier to turn away and melt into what we consider normalcy – there we generally don’t find the types of controversies that make us uneasy.  21st Century American teenagers need to find a reason to care, to shake free from their me-centered tendencies.  This lesson will give them a look at the centuries-long persecution of the Jews by multiple perpetrators.

 

Materials:

 

Pre-Teaching (about five minutes):  At the end of the class period prior to beginning the Holocaust unit, assign the class to read the section in the text that covers the events of the Holocaust.  It will be very beneficial if students have been exposed to major events during the period 1933-45 as they prepare to move backwards and look to ages-old persecution of the Jews.

 

Procedure (up to four class periods – there is flexibility in this lesson plan.  Through work-at-home, assigned readings, etc. the teacher can dictate how much time is actually spent in the classroom.  If the teacher is also using Art Spiegelman’s Maus I & II, this unit should be completed prior to beginning the reading of the first volume.  The entire Holocaust unit will then occupy approximately 2 ½-3 weeks of class time.):  Begin by asking for impressions from the reading.  Ask the students if they are familiar with the term “genocide”.  Explain it as a one-sided mass killing, which is sometimes preceded by forced conditions of deprivation, emigration, starvation, etc.  In the 1930’s-‘40’s, it was the Jews of Europe who fell victim to perhaps the best-known genocide of the 20th Century, the Holocaust.  Students should know that the term “holocaust” is not exclusive to the Jews; it is actually an old word that means “wholly-burnt offering”.  The Jews often refer to this period as the Shoah, a Hebrew word meaning catastrophe. 

 

Explain to the class that historically Jews have been hated for the following reasons (there are many reasons – the following are the main ones, in no particular order):

 

  1. Economic factors – Jews were often forced out of agriculture or professional jobs and into occupations that required them to act as tax collectors and “loan sharks”.
  2. The need for scapegoats – someone to place blame upon for the bad things in life.
  3. Ethnic hatred – seeing the Jews as different culturally and despising them for their “separation”.
  4. Xenophobia -- dislike of foreigners, racism.
  5. Resentment of Jewish affluence (wealth) and professional success – this would deal mainly with the period after the Jewish emancipation (political and economic freedom) of the late 19th Century up to the Holocaust.  Sometimes it is prevalent today…
  6. Religious bigotry – hating the Jews because of Judaism.1

 

In fact, it can be said somewhat universally that at one time or another, nearly every one of the world’s greatest powers that has had a large Jewish population has regarded this group, which never constituted more than a small percentage of the total national population, as an enemy.2  Consider – antisemites (those who hate Jews because they are Jews) have not opposed Jews because Jews are affluent (poor Jews have also been hated) or strong (weak Jews also seem to invite antisemitic bullying) or have unpleasant personalities (kindly Jews are hated, too)…  Antisemites have hated Jews because Jews are Jewish.3

 

There are four basic causes for the Jewish challenge to the views of non-Jews:

 

  1. For thousands of years, Jews have cleaved to the idea of the one true God, of their law as set forth in the Torah, and of peoplehood, evidenced today in the form of the state of Israel.  All of these have caused separation from non-Jews whether religiously, socially, or politically.
  2. Jews have been charged with the task of spreading “ethical monotheism” to the world.  This has brought them into conflict with other religions and political entities.
  3. It was God who commissioned the Jews to do the above.  For those who don’t believe in God, or for those who feel that Christianity or Islam has superseded the Jews’ “choseness”, this is a problem.
  4. As a result of the Jews call to a higher standard, they have tended to live higher quality lives (economically, educationally, socially, relationally) than their non-Jewish contemporaries.4

 

If the above are true (or perceived as true) statements, then we can see how the seeds of the Holocaust might be planted, and indeed planted in any society at any time.  The most curious thing about antisemitism is that it even exists in areas where there are no Jews.5

 

Questions:

 

1.      Think of all the characteristics, both positive and negative, of people who play sports.  These characteristics can contradict each other, so for example someone could say “dumb jock”, but maybe one of the top-ranked seniors academically also happens to be a star on one of the school’s teams… (Generate a list on the chalkboard or overhead projector film)

 

2.      Do you feel that the entire list is true for everyone who plays sports?  Is it possible that there are people who play sports who only fit the smallest percentage of these attributes? 

 

3.      Is there a social group in your area or school, or that you know of, that you feel is generally disliked? 

 

4.      What qualities does this group possess, or seem to possess, that irritates the rest of society to the point where they would discriminate or cause emotional or physical duress?  Of the named qualities, which are real and which are ascribed (pinned on them by outsiders)?

 

5.      Is it easier to hate with the rest of the crowd or easier to stop hate by facing the crowd?  Does the number of people on either side of the issue influence you?

 

6.      Do you think people are influenced by hate/anti-hate as spread by celebrities (both in the political, religious, and/or entertainment arenas)?

 

Activity:  Make enough copies of the following timelines so that each student in the group (you will need 9 groups – the material has been broken down from its original form of one long timeline) has their own copy.  Distribute the poster board or butcher paper to the groups.  Students should read their timelines and transfer dates (in 10- or sometimes 25-year increments) to the board or paper.  Next, using a prearranged color-coding system, students should analyze the events on their timelines and note the particular dates (with a very short summary of what the event was).  Color codes might mimic the following example:

 

            Green:  the economic hatred of Jews

            Blue:  dislike of the unlike – cultural persecution

            Red:  hatred of Jews as Jews – religious persecution

            Purple:  scapegoats – Jews blamed for natural disasters, etc.

            Orange:  forced migrations, expulsions

            Light blue:  positive things that happened (political rights, etc.)

 

Groups will be:             Classical Christianity/Byzantine period

                                                Medieval Period in the West

                                                Crusades Begin

                                                Later Middle Ages

                                                Reformation and Post-Reformation

                                                Jewish Modern Period

                                                19th Century

                                                After the American Civil War

 

At the conclusion of work time, the teacher should be able to hang several timelines at a time from the chalkboard to develop a continuum of Jewish history.  A representative (or representatives) from each group should discuss their timeline and take any questions from the class.

 

Follow-up Activity:  It has been said that the Nazis were many things, but original was not one of them.

 

After students have filled out the timelines, distribute copies of the Nuremberg Laws (enclosed) and read together as a class.  Using the same color codes as before, discuss the nature of the laws and their intent.

 

Next, distribute copies of Martin Luther’s sermon, “The Jews and Their Lies (1543)”.  Also distribute the account of Kristallnacht.  Have students compare the two articles either on paper or in class discussion.

 

Evaluation:  The teacher should collect and grade any work from the textbook.  In addition, timelines should be collected for a grade.  Ultimately, students will be responsible for information from the text as well as from the Maus reading, should the teacher participate in that activity.  A summary essay, which would encompass all of the above, might look something like this:

 

            The Jewish people have been persecuted since the time of God’s revelation of the Torah on Mt. Sinai, thousands of years ago.  This persecution reached it zenith in the first half of the 20th Century with the Holocaust, when six million Jews (and six million non-Jews) lost their lives at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators.  Based on your recent study, in your opinion was the Holocaust made possible by one, some, all, or none of the following causes (support your answer with specific examples from our class work):

 

                        Social stereotypes                                 Economics

                        Religion                                                Cultural differences

Adolf Hitler

Consolidation & Dominance of Classical Christianity

(325-590)

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/dom.html

Christian First Ecumenical Council, at Nicea (Asia Minor), changes the date of Easter from

 

Passover and forbids Jews from owning Christian slaves or converting pagans to Judaism: 325

 

Jerusalem becomes part of Constantine's Byzantine Empire: 330

 

Constantine forbids intermarriage with Jews and the circumcision of heathen or Christian slaves, declaring death as the punishment: 339

 

Christianity becomes the official religion of the Roman Empire: 380/391

 

Rome sacked by Visigoths: 410

 

St. Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria, champions violence against the city's Jews and incites the Greeks to kill or expel them. Some Jews return within a few years, but many return only after the Muslims conquer Egypt: 415

 

Theodosius enacts a code prohibiting Jews from holding important positions involving money.

He also reenacts a law forbidding the building of new synagogues: 439

 

After conquering Italy in 493, Ostrogoth king Theodoric issues an edict safeguarding the Jews and ensuring their right to determine civil disputes and freedom of worship: 500

 

After Ravenna residents burnt down local synagogues, Ostrogoth ruler Theodoric orders the Italian town to rebuild the synagogues at their own expense: 519

 

Recared of Spain adopts Catholicism, banning Jews from slave ownership, intermarriage and holding positions of authority. Recared also declares that children of mixed marriages be raised Christian: 587

 

Birth of Prophet Muhammad, Makkah: 570.

 

Pope Gregory the Great formulates the official Papal policy towards Jews, objecting to forced baptism and tolerating them according to the previous council's regulations: 590.

Byzantine Rule

(313-636)

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/byz.html

Sporadic persecution of Christianity by Rome: to 311

 

Emperor Caracalla enfranchises all Jews within Roman Empire, allowing them to become full citizens: 212

 

Roman emperor Alexander Severus's respect for Jews and lenient treatment towards them enables Judah II to successfully press for greater Jewish rights, including the right to visit Jerusalem: 222-235

 

Violent persecution of Christians by Emperor Diocletian: 303

 

One of the first Christian councils, the Council of Elvira, forbids intermarriage and social interaction with Jews: 306

 

Emperor Constantine embraces Christianity, announces Edict of Toleration: 312/313

 

Code of Constantine limits rights of non-Christians, is Constantine's first anti-Jewish act: 315

 

“Medieval” Period in the West, Including the Crusades

(ca. 600-1500)

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/med.html

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/islamtime.html

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/crusadetime.html

Visigothic ruler Sesbut prohibits Judaism after several anti-Jewish edicts are ignored. Exiled Jews return to Byzantine Spain under Sesbut's successor, Swintilla: 610

 

Persian General Romizanes captures Jerusalem and allows Jews to run the city. At this time, approximately 150,000 Jews are living in 43 settlements in Eretz-Israel: 614

 

The Persians renege on their promises and forbid Jews to settle within a three-mile radius of Jerusalem: 617

 

Muhammad attacks Jewish Arabian tribes for refusing to convert to Islam. Eventually the Southern Arabian tribes are destroyed: 624-7

 

While proselytizing Arabia, Muhammad captures the Banu Kurara tribe and forces the group of about 600 to chose between conversion and death. After spending all night praying, all but three or four Banu Kurarans are beheaded: 626

 

Emperor Heraclius breaks his promise of protection to Jews, massacring any he found and forbidding them from entering Jerusalem. Hundreds of Jews were killed and thousands exiled to Egypt, ending the Jewish towns in the Galilee and Judea. Heraclius' decree remained in effect until the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem: 627-629

 

Although Chintilla decrees that only Catholics are permitted to live in Visigothic Spain, many Jews continue to live there: 638

 

Visigoth King Erwig continues oppression of Jews, making it illegal to practice any Jewish rites and pressing for the conversion or emigration of the remaining Jews: 682

 

First account of Jews in England: 691

 

Jews help Muslim invaders capture Spain, ending Visigothic rule and beginning a 150-year period of relative peace, in which Jews were free to study and practice religion as they wished: 712

 

In the wake of a narrow military defeat over Muslim forces, Leo III of Constantinople decided his nation's weakness lay in its heterogeneous (people were different) population, and began the forcible conversion of the Jews, as well as the "New Christians." Most converted under Leo III clandestinely continued their Jewish practices: 722

 

Charlemagne, French Holy Roman Emperor, protected and helped develop Jewish culture in his kingdom, seeing Jews as an asset: 742-814

 

Harun Al Rashid, Caliph of the Abbasids forces Baghdad Jews to wear a yellow badge and Christians to wear a blue badge: 807

 

Charlemagne's son, Louis the Pious, who succeeded his father as king, expanded his father's positive policies towards the Jews, like changing "market day" from Saturday (Shabbat) to Sunday: 814-840

 

In the wake of the Norman conquest of England, Jews left Normandy and settled in London and later in York, Norwich, Oxford, Bristol and Lincoln: 1066

 

Pope Gregory VII prohibited Jews from holding offices in Christendom (western Europe): 1078

 

Iban Iashufin, King of the Almoravids, captured Granada (in Spain) and destroyed the Jewish community, the survivors fled to Toledo: 1090

 

Henry IV of Germany, who granted Jews favorable conditions whenever possible, issued a charter to the Jews and a decree against forced baptism: 1095

 

Crusades Begin

 

Participants in the First Crusade massacre Jews in several Central European cities, beginning centuries of pogroms linked to the Crusades: 1096

 

More than 5,000 Jews were murdered in Germany in several different attacks: 1096

 

Crusaders (European Christians) capture Jerusalem and massacre tens of thousands of the city's Jews: 1099

 

Germans, including German Jews, migrate to Poland. It is seen as "the land of opportunity": 1100

 

After reconquering Toledo, Spain from the Muslims, Alphonso I invited all Jews to return: 1115

 

Jews from Muslim countries begin to settle in Byzantium: 1120

 

Records of a Jewish gate in Kiev attest to the presence of a Jewish community there: 1124

 

Jews in Norwich, England, are accused of murdering a Christian child in what is believed to be the first ritual murder charge. The blood libel, as well as others in England that follow in the 12th century, incites anti-Jewish violence: 1144

 

Saladin (1138-1193) recaptures Jerusalem from Crusaders grants Jews permission to re-enter: 1187

 

Jews attacked, over 150 die after a six-day standoff in York, England: March 16, 1190

 

Approximately 2,500 Jews live in England, enjoying more rights than Jews on the continent: 1190

 

French King Phillip starts the Third Crusade, cancels debts to Jews, drives many Jews out of France, confiscates their property: 1191

 

Pope Innocent III (Christian): 1198-1216

 

First synagogue built in Vienna, a city where Jews enjoyed more freedom than in other areas of Austria: 1204

 

Fourth Lateran Council expands anti-Jewish decrees in Europe, forces Jews to wear the Yellow Patch, the "Badge of Shame”: 1215

 

Deacon Robert of Reading, England, was burned for converting to Judaism, setting a precedent for the burning of "heretics." 1222

 

Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury and a prime mover of the Lateran Council, forbids Jews from building new synagogues, owning slaves or mixing with Christians: 1222

 

King Henry III of England forced Jews to pay half the value of their property in taxes: 1229

 

Pope Gregory IX orders the kings of France, England, Spain and Portugal to confiscate Hebrew books, Following this edict, the Talmud is condemned and burned in France and Rome: 1239

 

First accusation of desecration of the Host (the wafers used is Christian Mass) - the blood libel - in Berlitz, Germany: 1243

 

Pope Innocent IV issued a Bull refuting blood libels and sent it throughout Germany and France: 1247

 

Later Middle Ages

 

King Henry III of England ordered Jewish worship in synagogue to be held quietly so that Christians passing by do not have to hear it. He also ordered that Jews may not employ Christian nurses or maids, nor may any Jew prevent another from converting to Christianity: 1253

 

French King Louis IX expelled the Jews from France, ending the Tosaphists period. Most Jews went to Germany and further east: 1254

 

Seeing himself as the "master of the Jews," King Henry II of England transferred his rights to the Jews to his brother, Richard, for 5,000 marks: 1255

 

In a special session, the Vienna city council forced Jews to wear the Pileum cornutum, a cone-shaped headdress prevalent in many medieval woodcuts illustrating Jews. This form of distinctive dress was an addition to badge Jews were forced to wear: 1267

 

King Edward of England banned usury (lending money at interest) and unsuccessfully encouraged Jews in agriculture, crafts and local trades. He also forced Jews over the age of seven to wear an identifying badge: 1275

 

The Archbishop of Canterbury, John Pectin, ordered all London synagogues to close and prohibited Jewish physicians from practicing on Christians: 1282

 

Blood libel, the belief that Jews kidnapped and ritually murdered children to mix their blood in the making of matzah bread for Passover, in Munich, Germany results in the death of 68 Jews. An additional 180 Jews are burned alive at the synagogue: 1285

 

A mob in Oberwesel, Germany kills 40 Jewish men, women and children after a ritual murder accusation: 1287

 

Bowing to political pressure, English King Edward I expels the Jews from England. They were only allowed to take what they could carry and most went to France, paying for their passage only to be robbed and cast overboard by the ship captains: 1290

 

Similar to accusations made during the Black Plague, Jews were accused of encouraging lepers to poison Christian wells in France. An estimated five thousand Jews were killed before the king, Philip the Tall, admitted the Jews were innocent: 1321

 

Henry II of Castile forces Jews to wear yellow badges: 1321

 

Charles IV of France expels all French Jews without the one-year period he had promised them: 1322

 

Much of Europe blames the Black Plague on the Jews and tortured to confess that they poisoned the wells. Despite the pleas of innocence of Pope Clement VI, the accusations resulted in the destruction of over 60 large and 150 small Jewish communities: 1348-1349

 

Basil burns 600 Jews at the stake and forcibly baptizes 140 children, expelling the city's other Jews. The city's Christian residents convert the synagogue into a church and destroy the Jewish cemetery: 1348

 

Pope Clement VI issues an edict repudiating the libel against Jews, saying that they too were suffering from the Plague: 1348

 

Pope Boniface continues the policy of Clement VI, forbidding the Christians to harm Jews, destroy their cemeteries or forcibly baptize them: 1389

 

Ferrand Martinez, archdeacon of Ecija, begins a campaign against Spanish Jewry, killing over 10,000 and destroying the Jewish quarter in Barcelona. The campaign quickly spreads throughout Spain, except for Granada, and destroys Jewish communities in Valencia and Palma De Majorca: 1391

 

King Pedro I orders Spain not to harm the remaining Jews and decrees that synagogues not be converted into churches. 1391

 

King Pedro I announces his compliance with the Bull of Pope Boniface IX, protecting Jews from baptism. He extends this edict to Spanish Jewish refugees: 1392

 

Benedict XIII bans the study of the Talmud in any form, institutes forced Christian sermons, and tries to restrict Jewish life completely: 1415

 

Pope Martin V favorably reinstates old privileges of the Jews and orders that no child under the age of 12 can be forcibly baptized without parental consent: 1420

 

All Jews are expelled from Lyons, including the refugees from Paris who were expelled 20 years earlier. Jews now only remain in Provence (until 1500) and in the possessions of the Holy See: 1420

 

Pope Martin V issues a bull reminding Christians that Christianity was derived from Judaism and warns the Friars not to incite against the Jews. The Bull was withdrawn the following year, alleging that the Jews of Rome attained the Bull by fraud: 1422

 

Reformation and Post-Reformation Christian Period

(1517-Present - Here to 1569)

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/reformtime.html

38 Jews were burned at the stake in Berlin: 1510.

 

Jews in Venice are relegated to a ghetto, the most extreme segregation to which Jews had been submitted. Over time, Jews in many lands are similarly segregated: 1516

 

Martin Luther: 1483-1546

 

Luther posts "95 theses" in Wittenberg, Germany: 1517

 

Luther writes "About the Jews and Their Lies," considered the first modern anti-Semitic tract: 1543

 

Protestant Christian Reformation: ca. 1500-1650

 

John Calvin: 1509-1564

 

Jewish ghettos instituted (Venice, Rome): 1516, 1555

 

Ivan the Terrible becomes ruler of Russia and refuses to allow Jews to live in his kingdom: 1547

 

Under the direction of Cardinal Caraffa, later Pope Paul IV, the Talmud was confiscated and publicaly burned in Rome on Rosh Hashanah, starting a wave of Talmud burning throughout Italy: 1553

 

Cornelio da Montalcino, a Franciscan Friar who converted to Judaism, is burned alive in Rome: 1554

 

In his Bull Cum Nimis Absurdum, Pope Paul IV renewed all anti-Jewish legislation and installed a ghetto in Rome. The Bull also forced Jews to wear a special cap, forbade them from owning real estate or practicing medicine on Christians. It also limited Jewish communities to only one synagogue: 1555

 

In Recanti, Italy, under the protection of Pope Paul IV, Joseph Paul More, a baptized Jew, entered a synagogue on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and tried to preach a conversion sermon. The congregation evicted him and a near massacre occurred. Soon after, the Jews were expelled from Recanti: 1558

 

First known Jew to step on American soil, Joachim Gaunse (Ganz), lands on Roanoke Island: 1585

 

In Brest Litovsk, the son of a wealthy Jewish tax collector is accused of killing the family's Christian servant for ritual purposes. He is tortured and killed: 1564

 

Three months into his reign, Pope Pius V rejects Pope Pius IV leniency towards Jews and reinstates the restrictions of Pope Paul IV, which forced Jews to wear a special cap, forbade them from owning real estate or practicing medicine on Christians. It also limited Jewish communities to only one synagogue: 1566

 

Brest Litovsk welcomes Jewish settlement. In 80 years the Jewish population surges from 4,000 to more than 50,000: 1569

 

Pope Sixtus V rejects Pope Gregory XIII policies and forbids Jews from living in the Papal States and to print the Talmud: 1586

 

Built of wood, the entire Jewish quarter of Posen burned while then gentile population watched and pillaged. 15 people died and 80 Torah scrolls were burned: 1590

 

Pope Clement VIII expelled Jews from all Papal States except Rome and Ancona: 1593

 

Official Yom Kippur services are held for the first time in Amsterdam, though not without controversy: 1596

 

Frei Diogo Da Assumpacao, a partly Jewish friar who embraced Judaism, was burned alive in Lisbon. His arguments against Christianity were published and gained wide popularity: 1603

 

More than 80 New Christians (Jews who converted to Christianity) were burned at the stake after the Inquisition caught them holding regular Jewish services in Lima, Peru: 1639

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jewish Modern and Contemporary Periods

(ca. 1700-Present - Here to 1921)

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/modtimeline.html

Jewish population in America numbers approximately 250: 1700

 

First public Jewish synagogue in Berlin: 1712

 

Jews build a synagogue in Lower Manhattan (New York): 1730

 

England grants naturalization (citizenship) rights to Jews in the colonies: 1740

 

Parliament extends naturalization rights to Jews resident in England: 1753

 

Although usually considered more liberal than other states, Rhode Island refuses to grant Jews Aaron Lopez and Isaac Eliezer citizenship stating "no person who is not of the Christian religion can be admitted free to this colony." 1762

 

Portugal holds the last public Auto de Fe "Act of Faith," a ceremony where the Inquisition announces its punishments, usually a death sentence of burning at the stake: 1765

 

Napoleon (France): 1769-1821

 

American Revolution; religious freedom guaranteed: 1775-1781

 

Joseph II of Austria rescinds the 513-year old law requiring Jews to wear distinctive badges: 1781

 

Haym Solomon, a Polish Jew who arrived in New York in 1772, helps raise funds to finance the American cause in the Revolutionary War: 1781.

 

The Sultan of Morocco expels the Jews for the third time in recent years after they failed to pay an exorbitant ransom: 1783

 

Ratification of the U.S. Constitution means Jews may hold any federal office: 1788

 

French Revolution: 1789

 

Gershom Mendes Seixas, minister of New York's Jewish congregation, is invited to Washington's inaugural: 1789

 

Jews of Newport, Rhode Island welcome President George Washington. George Washington writes letter to Jewish community proclaiming religious liberty. 1790

 

French Jews granted full citizenship for the first time since the Roman Empire: September 27, 1791

 

Tsarist Russia confines Jews to Pale of Settlement, between the Black and Baltic Seas: 1791

 

19th Century

 

President Madison appoints Mordechai Noah as consul to Tunis and then rescinds the appointment when the Tunisians object to dealing with a Jew: 1813

 

King Ferdinand VII of Portugal reestablishes the Inquisition six years after it was abolished by Joseph Bonaparte: 1814

 

Although born a Jew, he converted to Protestantism and later became the father of Communism, Karl Marx: 1818-1883

 

A royal decree officially abolished the Spanish Inquisition: 1820 (It really ended in 1834.)

 

The Monroe Doctrine closes the American continent to foreign colonization: 1823

 

The first American Jewish periodical, The Jew, published in New York: 1823.

 

Reinterpretation of Russia's Conscription Law mandates 31 years of military service for Jews, beginning at age 12: 1827

 

German Jews begin to immigrate to America in substantial numbers: 1830.

 

Louis Philippe of France grants state support to synagogues: 1831

 

Although Jews had been living in Jamaica since 1655, they are finally given the right to vote: 1831

 

Canada grants Jews political rights: 1832

 

Jews are accused of murdering a Franciscan friar in the Damascus blood libel: 1840

 

First organized movement by American Jewry to protest false accusations of blood libel in Damascus, Syria: 1840

 

The first Hebrew printing press in India is established: 1840

 

The use of the word "Jew" as a verb comes into popular parlance in North America. "To Jew" means to strike a bargain or employ questionable business practices, according to this prejudicial usage: 1840's

 

David Levy Yulee of Florida elected to the United States Senate, the first Jew in Congress: 1841

 

Lewis Charles Levin was the first Jew elected to the U.S. House of Representatives: 1844

 

David Levy Yulee of Florida is the first Jew elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served from 1845-1861. Yulee resigned at the beginning of the Civil War to become a member of the Confederate Congress: 1845

 

In every part of Germany, excluding Bavaria, Jews had been granted civil rights, allowing Gabriel Riesser, a Jewish advocate, to be elected vice-president of the Frankfurt Vor Parliament and to become a member of the National Assembly. The civil rights, however, existed on paper only and were not enforced: 1848

 

Mount Sinai, the first Jewish Hospital in the United States is founded by a group of mostly German Jewish immigrants: 1852

 

The Ghetto of Prague is officially abolished: 1852

 

Reign of Napoleon III of France: 1852-1870

 

Edgar Mortara, an Italian Jewish child, is abducted by Papal Guards and placed in a monastery: 1858

 

Kaiser William II of Germany: 1859-1941 (Reign 1888-1918)

 

Judah Benjamin becomes attorney general of the Confederacy, the first Jew to hold a cabinet-level office in any American government: 1861

 

1,200 Jews fought for the Confederacy and 6,000 for the Union, including nine generals and 21 colonels in the American Civil War: 1861-1865

 

General Ulysses S. Grant expels Jewish civilians issues General Order No. 11 expelling the Jews "as a class" from the area under the jurisdiction of the Union army in his military department: 1862

 

Jacob Frankel is appointed first Jewish chaplain in the United States Army: 1862

 

Judah P. Benjamin is appointed Secretary of State of the Confederacy: 1862

 

After the American Civil War

 

Jews become a majority in Jerusalem: 1866

 

Switzerland, a hotbed of anti-Jewish edicts grants Jews equal rights only after threats by the United States, France and Britain: 1866

 

The original Ku Klux Klan is organized to maintain "white supremacy": 1867

 

Hungary passes legislation emancipating (granting civil rights) the Jews: 1867

 

Ghettos abolished in Italy: 1870

 

The Edict of Pope Nicholas III, which required compulsory attendance of Jews at conversion sermons since 1278 is abolished: 1870

 

New Hampshire becomes the last state to offer Jews political equality: 1877.

 

Ottoman government announces permission for foreign (non-Ottoman) Jews to settle throughout Ottoman Empire: 1881.

 

Start of mass migrations of eastern European Jews: 1881

 

May Laws restricting the movements and conduct of Jews are enacted in Russia: 1881

 

The word "pogrom" enters the English language, as Russian mobs begin a series of violent attacks against Jews and their property: 1881

 

British occupation of Muslim Egypt: 1882

 

Ottoman government adopts policy to allow Jewish pilgrims and business-people to visit Palestine, but not settle: 1882.

 

Czar Alexander III issues the May Laws banishing Jews from rural areas in an effort to " cause one-third of the Jews to emigrate, one-third to accept baptism and one-third to starve." 1882

 

Ottoman government closes Palestine to foreign (non-Ottoman) Jewish business, but not to Jewish pilgrims: 1884.

 

Sir Nathaniel Meyer Rothschild becomes the first Jew in England's House of Lords. The Christian oath was amended so that non-Christians could also serve in the House of Lords: 1885

 

European powers press Ottoman government to allow foreign (non-Ottoman) Jews to settle in Palestine provided they do not do so en masse: 1888.

Grand Duke Segai orders the expulsion of 14,00 Jewish families living in Moscow. Those who refuse to convert or become prostitutes are sent to the Pale of Settlement: 1891

 

Ottoman government forbids sale of state land to foreign (non-Ottoman) Jews in Palestine: 1892.

 

French general staff officer Alfred Dreyfus is sentenced to life on Devil's Island in the Dreyfus Affair: 1894

 

Last Russian Czar, commissioned what became the anti-Semitic "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," Nicholas II: 1894-1917

 

A section of the Old City Wall is removed to facilitate the entrance of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and his entourage on his visit to Jerusalem: 1898.

 

Emile Zola wins a new trial for Alfred Dreyfus, and despite new charges, Dreyfus is acquitted and promoted to Major: 1899

 

20th Century

 

500,000 Jews flee Russia, 90% go to the United States: 1903-1907

 

Turkey (formerly the Ottoman Empire) grants Jews political rights: 1908

 

United States abrogates treaty of 1832 with Russia because of Russia's refusal to honor passports of Jewish Americans: 1912

 

12 of the 100 members of the Reichstag (German parliament) are Jewish: 1912

 

World War I: 1914-1918

 

Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand assassinated in Sarajevo prompting World War One: 1914

 

During First World War, Russian forces in retreat drive 600,000 Jews from their homes: 1914

 

American Jewish Relief Committee established to distribute funds to needy Jews; it later combined with other Jewish relief organizations to become the Joint Distribution Committee: 1914

 

The Ottoman Empire enters the war on the side of Germany: 1914.

 

Moses Alexander elected Governor of Idaho - the first Jew to win the governorship of an American state: 1915.

 

Leo Frank, a southern American Jew falsely convicted of murdering a 14 year-old girl is hung by a lynch mob: 1915

 

Louis Dembitz Brandeis is first Jew appointed to the Supreme Court: 1916

 

Germany accuses Jews of evading active service in WWI, despite 100,000 Jews serving, 12% higher than their population ratio: 1916

 

Jews granted full rights in Russia: 1917

 

Russian Revolution breaks out, heavy fighting in the South and West, where over 3 million Jews live. Over 2000 pogroms took place, claiming the lives of up to 200,000 Jews in the next three years: 1917

 

The United States declared war on Germany. Approximately 250,000 Jewish soldiers (20% of whom were volunteers) served in the U.S. Army, roughly 5.7% while Jews only made up 3.25% of the general American population: 1917

 

The Jewish Welfare Board is created and serves the social and religious requirements of Jewish soldiers; expands after the war: 1917

 

End of World War I: 1918.

 

Treaty of Versailles formally ends Word War I. Out of an estimated 1.5 million Jewish soldiers in all the armies, approximately 170,000 were killed and over 100,000 cited for valor: 1918

 

Versailles Peace Conference decides that the conquered Arab provinces will not be restored to Ottoman rule: 1919.

 

First Palestinian National Congress meeting in Jerusalem sends two memoranda to Versailles rejecting Balfour Declaration and demanding independence: 1919.

 

Second and third Palestinian National Congress' held: 1920.

 

Henry Ford's newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, begins publishing its anti-Semitic propaganda, including the Protocols of the Elders of Zion: 1920

 

Immigration laws "reformed" to effectively exclude Eastern European Jews and other immigrants. Further restrictions imposed in 1924: 1921.

 

Fourth Palestinian National Congress convenes in Jerusalem, decides to send delegation to London to explain case against Balfour: 1921.

 

Harvard's president proposes a quota on the number of Jews admitted. After a contentious debate, he withdrew the recommendation: 1922

 

American Jews cheer Detroit Tigers' Hank Greenberg when he refuses to play ball on Yom Kippur. In 1938, with five games left to the season, Greenberg's 58 home runs are two shy of Babe Ruth's record. When several pitchers walk him rather than giving him a shot at the record, many believe major league baseball did not want a Jew to claim that place in America's national sport: 1934.

 

Law for the Protection of
German Blood and German Honor

(September 15, 1935)

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/nurmlaw2.html

Entirely convinced that the purity of German blood is essential to the further existence of the German people, and inspired by the uncompromising determination to safeguard the future of the German nation, the Reichstag has unanimously resolved upon the following law, which is promulgated herewith:

Section 1

1. Marriages between Jews and citizens of German or kindred blood are forbidden. Marriages concluded in defiance of this law are void, even if, for the purpose of evading this law, they were concluded abroad.

2. Proceedings for annulment may be initiated only by the Public Prosecutor.

Section 2

Sexual relations outside marriage between Jews and nationals of German or kindred blood are forbidden.

Section 3

Jews will not be permitted to employ female citizens of German or kindred blood as domestic servants.

Section 4

1. Jews are forbidden to display the Reich and national flag or the national colors.

2. On the other hand they are permitted to display the Jewish colors. The exercise of this right is protected by the State.

Section 5

1. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of Section 1 will be punished with hard labor.

2. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of Section 2 will be punished with imprisonment or with hard labor.

3. A person who acts contrary to the provisions of Sections 3 or

4 will be punished with imprisonment up to a year and with a fine, or with one of these penalties.

Section 6

The Reich Minister of the Interior in agreement with the Deputy Fuhrer and the Reich Minister of Justice will issue the legal and administrative regulations required for the enforcement and supplementing of this law.

Section 7

The law will become effective on the day after its promulgation; Section 3, however, not until 1 January 1936.

Sources: Noakes, Jeremy, and Geoffrey Pridham. Documents on Nazism 1919-1945. NY: Viking Press, 1974, pp. 463-467, and The Nizkor Project.

 

 

The Reich Citizenship Law

(September 15, 1935)

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/nurmlaw3.html

The Reich Citizenship Law stripped Jews of their German citizenship and introduced a new distinction between “Reich citizens ” and “nationals.” Certificates of Reich citizenship were in fact never introduced and all Germans other than Jews were until 1945 provisionally classed as Reich citizens.

Article I

1. A subject of the State is a person who belongs to the protective union of the German Reich, and who therefore has particular obligations towards the Reich.

2. The status of subject is acquired in accordance with the provisions of the Reich and State Law of Citizenship.

Article 2

1. A citizen of the Reich is that subject only who is of German or kindred blood and who, through his conduct, shows that he is both desirous and fit to serve the German people and Reich faithfully.

2. The right to citizenship is acquired by the granting of Reich citizenship papers.

3. Only the citizen of the Reich enjoys full political rights in accordance with the provision of the laws.

Article 3

The Reich Minister of the Interior in conjunction with the Deputy of the Fuhrer will issue the necessary legal and administrative decrees for carrying out and supplementing this law.

Sources: Noakes, Jeremy, and Geoffrey Pridham. Documents on Nazism 1919-1945. NY: Viking Press, 1974, pp. 463-467, and The Nizkor Project.

 

Martin Luther: The Jews and Their Lies

(1543)

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Luther_on_Jews.html

At the beginning of his career, Luther was apparently sympathetic to Jewish resistance to the Catholic Church. He wrote, early in his career:

The Jews are blood-relations of our Lord; if it were proper to boast of flesh and blood, the Jews belong more to Christ than we. I beg, therefore, my dear Papist, if you become tired of abusing me as a heretic that you begin to revile me as a Jew.

But Luther expected them to convert to his purified Christianity. When they did not, he turned violently against Jews.

It is impossible for modern people to read the horrible passages below and not to think of the burning of synagogues in November 1938 on Kristallnacht. Nor would one wish to excuse Luther for this text.

A number of points must, however, be made. The most important concerns the language used. Luther used violent and vulgar language throughout his career....We do not expect religious figures to use this sort of language in the modern world, but it was not uncommon in the early 16th century. Second, although Luther's comments seem to be proto-Nazi, they are better seen as part of tradition of Medieval Christian anti-Semitism. While there is little doubt that Christian anti-Semitism laid the social and cultural basis for modern anti-Semitism, modern anti-Semitism does differ in being based on pseudo-scientific notions of race. The Nazis imprisoned and killed Jews who had converted to Christianity: Luther would have welcomed them.

None of this justifies what follows, but it may help to comprehend what is happening. In 1994, the Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America rejected Luther's anti-Semitic writings.

Martin Luther: The Jews and Their Lies

(Extracts)

I had made up my mind to write no more either about the Jews or against them. But since I learned that these miserable and accursed people do not cease to lure to themselves even us, that is, the Christians, I have published this little book, so that I might be found among those who opposed such poisonous activities of the Jews who warned the Christians to be on their guard against them. I would not have believed that a Christian could be duped by the Jews into taking their exile and wretchedness upon himself. However, the devil is the god of the world, and wherever God's word is absent he has an easy task, not only with the weak but also with the strong. May God help us. Amen.

***

He did not call them Abraham's children, but a "brood of vipers" [Matt. 3:7]. Oh, that was too insulting for the noble blood and race of Israel, and they declared, "He has a demon' [Matt 11:18]. Our Lord also calls them a "brood of vipers"; furthermore in John 8 [:39,44] he states: "If you were Abraham's children ye would do what Abraham did.... You are of your father the devil. It was intolerable to them to hear that they were not Abraham's but the devil's children, nor can they bear to hear this today.

***

Therefore the blind Jews are truly stupid fools...

***

Now just behold these miserable, blind, and senseless people.

***

...their blindness and arrogance are as solid as an iron mountain.

***

Learn from this, dear Christian, what you are doing if you permit the blind Jews to mislead you. Then the saying will truly apply, "When a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into the pit" [cf. Luke 6:39]. You cannot learn anything from them except how to misunderstand the divine commandments...

***

Therefore be on your guard against the Jews, knowing that wherever they have their synagogues, nothing is found but a den of devils in which sheer self­glory, conceit, lies, blasphemy, and defaming of God and men are practiced most maliciously and veheming his eyes on them.

***

Moreover, they are nothing but thieves and robbers who daily eat no morsel and wear no thread of clothing which they have not stolen and pilfered from us by means of their accursed usury. Thus they live from day to day, together with wife and child, by theft and robbery, as arch­thieves and robbers, in the most impenitent security.

***

However, they have not acquired a perfect mastery of the art of lying; they lie so clumsily and ineptly that anyone who is just a little observant can easily detect it. But for us Christians they stand as a terrifying example of God's wrath.

***

If I had to refute all the other articles of the Jewish faith, I should be obliged to write against them as much and for as long a time as they have used for inventing their lies­­ that is, longer than two thousand years.

***

...Christ and his word can hardly be recognized because of the great vermin of human ordinances. However, let this suffice for the time being on their lies against doctrine or faith.

***

Did I not tell you earlier that a Jew is such a noble, precious jewel that God and all the angels dance when he farts?

***

Alas, it cannot be anything but the terrible wrath of God which permits anyone to sink into such abysmal, devilish, hellish, insane baseness, envy, and arrogance. If I were to avenge myself on the devil himself I should be unable to wish him such evil and misfortune as God's wrath inflicts on the Jews, compelling them to lie and to blaspheme so monstrously, in violation of their own conscience. Anyway, they have their reward for constantly giving God the lie.

***

No, one should toss out these lazy rogues by the seat of their pants.

***

...but then eject them forever from this country. For, as we have heard, God's anger with them is so intense that gentle mercy will only tend to make them worse and worse, while sharp mercy will reform them but little. Therefore, in any case, away with them!

***

Over and above that we let them get rich on our sweat and blood, while we remain poor and they such the marrow from our bones.

***

I brief, dear princes and lords, those of you who have Jews under your rule­­ if my counsel does not please your, find better advice, so that you and we all can be rid of the unbearable, devilish burden of the Jews, lest we become guilty sharers before God in the lies, blasphemy, the defamation, and the curses which the mad Jews indulge in so freely and wantonly against the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, this dear mother, all Christians, all authority, and ourselves. Do not grant them protection, safe conduct, or communion with us... With this faithful counsel and warning I wish to cleanse and exonerate my conscience.

***

Let the government deal with them in this respect, as I have suggested. But whether the government acts or not, let everyone at least be guided by his own conscience and form for himself a definition or image of a Jew.

***

However, we must avoid confirming them in their wanton lying, slandering, cursing, and defaming. Nor dare we make ourselves partners in their devilish ranting and raving by shielding and protecting them, by giving them food, drink, and shelter, or by other neighborly

***

Therefore we Christians, in turn, are obliged not to tolerate their wanton and conscious blasphemy.

***

Accordingly, it must and dare not be considered a trifling matter but a most serious one to seek counsel against this and to save our souls from the Jews, that is, from the devil and from eternal death.

***

What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the Jews? Since they live among us, we dare not tolerate their conduct, now that we are aware of their lying and reviling and blaspheming. If we do, we become sharers in their lies, cursing and blasphemy. Thus we cannot extinguish the unquenchable fire of divine wrath, of which the prophets speak, nor can we convert the Jews. With prayer and the fear of God we must practice a sharp mercy to see whether we might save at least a few from the glowing flames. We dare not avenge ourselves. Vengeance a thousand times worse than we could wish them already has them by the throat. I shall give you my sincere advice:

First to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians, and do not condone or knowingly tolerate such public lying, cursing, and blaspheming of his Son and of his Christians. For whatever we tolerated in the past unknowingly ­ and I myself was unaware of it ­ will be pardoned by God. But if we, now that we are informed, were to protect and shield such a house for the Jews, existing right before our very nose, in which they lie about, blaspheme, curse, vilify, and defame Christ and us (as was heard above), it would be the same as if we were doing all this and even worse ourselves, as we very well know.

Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. For they pursue in them the same aims as in their synagogues. Instead they might be lodged under a roof or in a barn, like the gypsies. This will bring home to them that they are not masters in our country, as they boast, but that they are living in exile and in captivity, as they incessantly wail and lament about us before God.

Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them. (remainder omitted)

Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb. For they have justly forfeited the right to such an office by holding the poor Jews captive with the saying of Moses (Deuteronomy 17 [:10 ff.]) in which he commands them to obey their teachers on penalty of death, although Moses clearly adds: "what they teach you in accord with the law of the Lord." Those villains ignore that. They wantonly employ the poor people's obedience contrary to the law of the Lord and infuse them with this poison, cursing, and blasphemy. In the same way the pope also held us captive with the declaration in Matthew 16 {:18], "You are Peter," etc, inducing us to believe all the lies and deceptions that issued from his devilish mind. He did not teach in accord with the word of God, and therefore he forfeited the right to teach.

Fifth, I advise that safe conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. For they have no business in the countryside, since they are not lords, officials, tradesmen, or the like. Let they stay at home. (...remainder omitted).

Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them and put aside for safekeeping. The reason for such a measure is that, as said above, they have no other means of earning a livelihood than usury, and by it they have stolen and robbed from us all they possess. Such money should now be used in no other way than the following: Whenever a Jew is sincerely converted, he should be handed one hundred, two hundred, or three hundred florins, as personal circumstances may suggest. With this he could set himself up in some occupation for the support of his poor wife and children, and the maintenance of the old or feeble. For such evil gains are cursed if they are not put to use with God's blessing in a good and worthy cause.

Seventh, I commend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow, as was imposed on the children of Adam (Gen 3[:19]}. For it is not fitting that they should let us accursed Goyim toil in the sweat of our faces while they, the holy people, idle away their time behind the stove, feasting and farting, and on top of all, boasting blasphemously of their lordship over the Christians by means of our sweat. No, one should toss out these lazy rogues by the seat of their pants.

***

But what will happen even if we do burn down the Jews' synagogues and forbid them publicly to praise God, to pray, to teach, to utter God's name? They will still keep doing it in secret. If we know that they are doing this in secret, it is the same as if they were doing it publicly. for our knowledge of their secret doings and our toleration of them implies that they are not secret after all and thus our conscience is encumbered with it before God.

***

Accordingly, it must and dare not be considered a trifling matter but a most serious one to seek counsel against this and to save our souls from the Jews, that is, from the devil and from eternal death. My advice, as I said earlier, is:

First, that their synagogues be burned down, and that all who are able toss in sulphur and pitch; it would be good if someone could also throw in some hellfire. That would demonstrate to God our serious resolve and be evidence to all the world that it was in ignorance that we tolerated such houses, in which the Jews have reviled God, our dear Creator and Father, and his Son most shamefully up till now but that we have now given them their due reward.

***

I wish and I ask that our rulers who have Jewish subjects exercise a sharp mercy toward these wretched people, as suggested above, to see whether this might not help (though it is doubtful). They must act like a good physician who, when gangrene has set in, proceeds without mercy to cut, saw, and burn flesh, veins, bone, and marrow. Such a procedure must also be followed in this instance. Burn down their synagogues, forbid all that I enumerated earlier, force them to work, and deal harshly with them, as Moses did in the wilderness, slaying three thousand lest the whole people perish. They surely do not know what they are doing; moreover, as people possessed, they do not wish to know it, hear it, or learn it. There it would be wrong to be merciful and confirm them in their conduct. If this does not help we must drive them out like mad dogs, so that we do not become partakers of their abominable blasphemy and all their other vices and thus merit God's wrath and be damned with them. I have done my duty. Now let everyone see to his. I am exonerated."

***

My essay, I hope, will furnish a Christian (who in any case has no desire to become a Jew) with enough material not only to defend himself against the blind, venomous Jews, but also to become the foe of the Jews' malice, lying, and cursing, and to understand not only that their belief is false but that they are surely possessed by all devils. May Christ, our dear Lord, convert them mercifully and preserve us steadfastly and immovably in the knowledge of him, which is eternal life. Amen.

From Luther's Works, Volume 47: The Christian in Society IV, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971). pp 268­293.

Source: Internet Medieval Sourcebook

 

Kristallnacht

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/kristallnacht.html

Almost immediately upon assuming the Chancellorship of Germany, Hitler began promulgating legal actions against Germany's Jews. In 1933, he proclaimed a one-day boycott against Jewish shops, a law was passed against kosher butchering and Jewish children began experiencing restrictions in public schools. By 1935, the Nuremberg Laws deprived Jews of German citizenship. By 1936, Jews were prohibited from participation in parliamentary elections and signs reading "Jews Not Welcome" appeared in many German cities. (Incidentally, these signs were taken down in the late summer in preparation for the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin).

In the first half of 1938, numerous laws were passed restricting Jewish economic activity and occupational opportunities. In July, 1938, a law was passed (effective January 1, 1939) requiring all Jews to carry identification cards. On October 28, 17,000 Jews of Polish citizenship, many of whom had been living in Germany for decades, were arrested and relocated across the Polish border. The Polish government refused to admit them so they were interned in "relocation camps" on the Polish frontier.

Germans pass broken window of Jewish-owned shop (USHMM Photo).

Among the deportees was Zindel Grynszpan, who had been born in western Poland and had moved to Hanover, where he established a small store, in 1911. On the night of October 27, Zindel Grynszpan and his family were forced out of their home by German police. His store and the family's possessions were confiscated and they were forced to move over the Polish border.

Zindel Grynszpan's seventeen-year-old son, Herschel, was living with an uncle in Paris. When he received news of his family's expulsion, he went to the German embassy in Paris on November 7, intending to assassinate the German Ambassador to France. Upon discovering that the Ambassador was not in the embassy, he settled for a lesser official, Third Secretary Ernst vom Rath. Rath, was critically wounded and died two days later, on November 9.

The assassination provided Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Chief of Propaganda, with the excuse he needed to launch a pogrom against German Jews. Grynszpan's attack was interpreted by Goebbels as a conspiratorial attack by "International Jewry" against the Reich and, symbolically, against the Fuehrer himself. This pogrom has come to be called Kristallnacht, "the Night of Broken Glass."

On the nights of November 9 and 10, rampaging mobs throughout Germany and the newly acquired territories of Austria and Sudetenland freely attacked Jews in the street, in their homes and at their places of work and worship. At least 96 Jews were killed and hundreds more injured, more than 1,000 synagogues were burned (and possibly as many as 2,000), almost 7,500 Jewish businesses were destroyed, cemeteries and schools were vandalized, and 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps [added by Mitchell Bard from his book The Complete Idiot's Guide to World War II. NY: MacMillan, 1998, pp. 59-60].

The burning of the synagogue in Ober Ramstadt (USHMM Photo).

The official German position on these events, which were clearly orchestrated by Goebbels, was that they were spontaneous outbursts. The Fuehrer, Goebbels reported to Party officials in Munich, "has decided that such demonstrations are not to be prepared or organized by the party, but so far as they originate spontaneously, they are not to be discouraged either." (Conot, Robert E. Justice At Nuremberg. NY: Harper & Row, 1983:165)

 Three days later, on November 12, Hermann Goering called a meeting of the top Nazi leadership to assess the damage done during the night and place responsibility for it. Present at the meeting were Goering, Goebbels, Reinhard Heydrich, Walter Funk and other ranking Nazi officials. The intent of this meeting was two-fold: to make the Jews responsible for Kristallnacht and to use the events of the preceding days as a rationale for promulgating a series of antisemitic laws which would, in effect, remove Jews from the German economy. An interpretive transcript of this meeting is provided by Robert Conot, Justice at Nuremberg, New York: Harper and Row, 1983:164-172):

'Gentlemen! Today's meeting is of a decisive nature,' Goering announced. 'I have received a letter written on the Fuehrer's orders requesting that the Jewish question be now, once and for all, coordinated and solved one way or another.'

'Since the problem is mainly an economic one, it is from the economic angle it shall have to be tackled. Because, gentlemen, I have had enough of these demonstrations! They don't harm the Jew but me, who is the final authority for coordinating the German economy. `If today a Jewish shop is destroyed, if goods are thrown into the street, the insurance companies will pay for the damages; and, furthermore, consumer goods belonging to the people are destroyed. If in the future, demonstrations which are necessary occur, then, I pray, that they be directed so as not to hurt us.

'Because it's insane to clean out and burn a Jewish warehouse, then have a German insurance company make good the loss. And the goods which I need desperately, whole bales of clothing and whatnot, are being burned. And I miss them everywhere. I may as well burn the raw materials before they arrive.

'I should not want to leave any doubt, gentlemen, as to the aim of today's meeting. We have not come together merely to talk again, but to make decisions, and I implore competent agencies to take all measures for the elimination of the Jew from the German economy, and to submit them to me.'

It was decided at the meeting that, since Jews were to blame for these events, they be held legally and financially responsible for the damages incurred by the pogrom. Accordingly, a "fine of 1 billion marks was levied for the slaying of Vom Rath, and 6 million marks paid by insurance companies for broken windows was to be given to the state coffers. (Snyder, Louis L. Encyclopedia of the Third Reich. New York: Paragon House, 1989:201).

Kristallnacht turns out to be a crucial turning point in German policy regarding the Jews and may be considered as the actual beginning of what is now called the Holocaust. 

1.      By now it is clear to Hitler and his top advisors that forced immigration of Jews out of the Reich is not a feasible option.

2.      Hitler is already considering the invasion of Poland.

3.      Numerous concentration camps and forced labor camps are already in operation.

4.      The Nuremberg Laws are in place.

5.      The doctrine of lebensraum has emerged as a guiding principle of Hitler's ideology. And,

6.      The passivity of the German people in the face of the events of Kristallnacht made it clear that the Nazis would encounter little opposition—even from the German churches.

Following the meeting, a wide-ranging set of antisemitic laws were passed which had the clear intent, in Goering's words, of "Aryanizing" the German economy. Over the next two or three months, the following measures were put into effect (cf., Burleigh and Wippermann, The Racial State: Germany, 1933-1945. NY: Cambridge, 1991:92-96):

1.      Jews were required to turn over all precious metals to the government.

2.      Pensions for Jews dismissed from civil service jobs were arbitrarily reduced.

3.      Jewish-owned bonds, stocks, jewelry and art works can be alienated only to the German state.

4.      Jews were physically segregated within German towns.

5.      A ban on the Jewish ownership of carrier pigeons.

6.      The suspension of Jewish driver's licenses.

7.      The confiscation of Jewish-owned radios.

8.      A curfew to keep Jews of the streets between 9:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. in the summer and 8:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. in the winter.

9.      Laws protecting tenants were made non-applicable to Jewish tenants.

10.  [Perhaps to help insure the Jews could not fight back in the future, the Minister of the Interior issued regulations against Jews' possession of weapons on November 11. This prohibited Jews from "acquiring, possessing, and carrying firearms and ammunition, as well as truncheons or stabbing weapons. Those now possessing weapons and ammunition are at once to turn them over to the local police authority."]

One final note on the November 12 meeting is of critical importance. In the meeting, Goering announced, "I have received a letter written on the Fuehrer's orders requesting that the Jewish question be now, once and for all, coordinated and solved one way or another." The path to the “Final Solution” has now been chosen. And, all the bureaucratic mechanisms for its implementation were now in place.

It should be noted that there is some controversy among Holocaust scholars as to the origin, intent and appropriateness of the term Kristallnacht. The term, after all, was coined by Walter Funk at the November 12 Nazi meeting following the pogrom of November 8-10. The crucial question is whether the term was a Nazi euphemism for an all-out pogrom against German Jews and whether the Nazis used the term in a derisive manner. There is considerable evidence that both of the above questions have an affirmative answer.

Holocaust, and Kristallnacht survivor, Ernest Heppner made the following observation in a recent (June, 1995) exchange of ideas on the Internet Holocaust Discussion List:

...as an eyewitness I was very emotionally involved in this event and its consequences. Like everyone else here in the United States, for some 50 years I called those horrible days and nights Kristallnacht. I changed my mind reluctantly when, during my research, I discovered Goering's intent to use this designation to ridicule this event.

The following sources should be of interest to the subscribers of this list.

"Die Juden in Deutschland 1933-1945," herausgegeben von Wolfgang Benz, Verlag C.H. Beck, Munich 1989, part VI, pages 499-544, Der November- pogrom 1938. The second sentence of this chapter begins: "Der Novem- berpogrom, als "Reichkristallnacht" im Umgangstonverniedlicht..." (The November pogrom was "prettified" in the vernacular as crystal night.")

Chapter 6, titled "Die 'Kristallnacht' als Anfang vom Ende";, (crystal night as the beginning of the end) starts: "Man kann den November- pogrom als ein Ritual oeffentlicher Demueting deuten..." (The November pogrom can be explained as a ritual for public humiliation...) The photograph accompanying this chapter it titled: "Vielleicht gab das zersplitterte Glass Anlass zu dem "Spottnamen Reichskristallnacht." (Perhaps the broken glass was used to ridicule the pogrom).

Also see Arnold Paucker's "The Jews in Germany," Tuebingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1986, page 220: "Der Novemberpogrom, euphemistisch 'Kristallnacht' genannt, war der Anfang vom Ende..." (The November pogrom, euphemistically named "Crystal Night" was the beginning of the end.)

There are additional sources, but I hope the above will serve to illustrate the fact that, except for the United States, The November Pogrom appears to be the established term.

Walter Pehle makes the following observation:

It is clear that the term Crystal Night serves to foster a vicious minimalizing of its memory, a discounting of grave reality: such cynical appellations function to reinterpret manslaughter and murder, arson, robbery, plunder, and massive property damage, transforming these into a glistening event marked by sparkle and gleam. Of course, such terms reveal one thing in stark clarity - the lack of any sense of involvement or feeling of sympathy on the part of those who had stuck their heads in the sand before that violent night.

With good reason, knowledgeable commentators urge people to renounce the continued use of "Kristallnacht" and "Reichskristall- nacht" to refer to these events, even if the expressions have become slick and established usage in our language. (Pehle, W. H., 'Editor's Preface' in Pehle, W. H. (ed.) November 1938, From Reichskristall nacht to Genocide, Berg Publishers Inc., NY, 1991, pp. vii-viii (English edition)

So, it appears, the term "Kristallnacht" or "Crystal Night" was invented by Nazis to mock Jews on that black November night in 1938. It is, therefore, another example of Nazi perversion. There are numerous other examples of this same tendency in the language of the Nazi perpetrators: Sonderbehandlung ("special treatment") for gassing victims, Euthanasie for a policy of mass murder of retarded or physically handicapped patients, Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Makes you Free) over the entrance to Auschwitz. When the Nazis launched their plan to annihilate the remaining Jews in Poland in the fall of 1943, they called it "Erntefest," or Harvest Festival. While this may have been a code word, as Froma Zeitlin has observed, it had the same grim and terrible irony that is reflected in Kristallnacht as in so many other instances of the perverted uses of language in the Third Reich. Perhaps most cynical of all is the use of the term, "Endloesung der Judenfrage" (Final Solution of the Jewish Question), for what is now known as the Holocaust. Goebbels frequently used such terminology to amuse his audiences (usually other Nazi officials) and to further demoralize his victims.

On the other side of this controversy are those who argue that the term should be retained. In the first place, it is the term which has been used now for fifty years and connotes significant meaning to those who study the Holocaust. As Froma Zeitlin (in a message posted to HOLOCAUS Internet Discussion Group in June, 1995) observes:

But I would like to point out that whether or not the name came into existence as a Nazi euphemism or not, the event itself and what it has come to signify has transformed an 'innocent' name into one of unforgettable and dramatic meaning. The term is permanently out of circulation for any other use whatsoever. Can you imagine us now using 'Kristallnacht' to refer to some street riot or another, no matter how extensively the streets were littered with broken glass? Certainly not. Moreover, what disturbed the German populace was less the sight of synagogues burning (fires take place all the time, after all -- it depends on the scale) than of the savage and wasteful vandalism that confronted bystanders everywhere, disrupting the clean and orderly streets (to say nothing of consumer convenience). What was indeed memorable was the sheer quantity of broken glass. A third point was the economic outcome of this massive breakage. Germany didn't produce enough plate glass to repair the damages (synagogues did not have to be replaced -- quite the contrary). The result was twofold: the need to import glass from Belgium (for sorely needed cash) and the outrage of indemnifying the Jewish community to pay for the damages. So the broken glass came to assume yet another outrageous dimension in the wake of the event.

Paul Lawrence Rose, Penn State University, agrees with the retention of the term "Kristallnacht" instead of "pogrom" or some other term and makes the following observation:

Of course, K-nacht was a pogrom of sorts, but it was a German event and more specifically still, a Nazi event. Replacing it with pogrom certainly sets it in the larger context of anti-Semitic massacres in European history, but it loses the German and Nazi contexts.

And, as Zeitlin observes, the origins of terms do not equal the historical meanings that they accumulate. To have criticized Goering's use of language in 1938 would have been appropriate; however, 1996 the term kristallnacht carries the significance and power it has acquired over the past fifty years.

Source: The Holocaust\Shoah Page.

 

 

References:

1.      Prager, Dennis, and Joseph Telushkin.  Why The Jews?  The Reason For Antisemitism.  Simon and Schuster:  New York, 2003.  Page 20.

2.      ibid.

3.      ibid., page 22.

4.      ibid., page 22-3.

  1. Lefkovitz, Elliot.  Various lectures delivered as curriculum for “Encountering the Holocaust”, Spertus College, Chicago.