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The Treaty of Versailles radified peace between Germany and the victorious Allies. The Treaty held Germany solely responsible for WWI and imposed harsh punishments such as loss of territory, reduced military, and 300 billion dollars of reparations, leaving Germans impoverished and resentful.

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The Nazi Party was founded in 1920. It sought to appeal German workers away from socialism and communism and move them towards an The Nazi Party was founded in 1920. It sought to appeal German workers away from socialism and communism and move them towards an anti-semitic and anti-Marxist ideology. It was at this point that the Nazi party became a subject a topic among Germany.

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In 1923, Germans became victims of price rapid inflation that created national misery and suffering. The value of paper money decreased so quickly that German companies paid employees in the morning so they could spend their wages at lunchtime just to eat. Germans needed huge amounts of paper money for even basic needs. German corporations found it impossible to do business or trade abroad. The Weimar government had no capacity for paying the reparations in the treaty of Versailles. This mass poverty across Germany led to a distrust in the current German government, and desperation that made people more vulnerable to the Nazi party.

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Troops supporting Hitler arrive in Munich during the Beer Hall Putsch

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On November 8-9 of 1923, Hitler, Erich Ludendorff, and the Nazi party attempted to overthrow the current German socialist government- the Weimar Republic. At this point, the Nazi party was still a small, right-wing extremist group in Germany. The hope was that this event would launch a national revolution against the socialists. The overthrow failed, and Adolf Hitler along with other ringleaders were arrested for treason, which infuriated Hitler ( very hypocritical considering what he does later to those who don’t support the Nazi party). Hitler’s incarceration only made the Nazi party more determined, and from this experience, Hitler learns that the legal path through elections to gain support was a more effective path to power.

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The Mein Kampf, written by Adolf Hitler, became a popular book across Germany. In the book, Hitler presents himself as the leader of the extreme right. The literature spread the beliefs of Nazism; harsh antisemitism, a racist worldview where only Germans are pure, aggressive nationalism, and foreign policy of German expansion. Over 12 million copies were sold.

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The American Stock Market Crash quickly led to a worldwide depression, worsening the German economy. The German population, surrounded by deteriorating economic conditions, was angry, frightened, and financially struggling, making Hitler and the Nazi party’s offers of hope and nationalism more appealing.

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Hitler and the Nazi Party ran a campaign in 1930, traveling across the country giving speeches, shaking hands, leading torchlight parades, and signing autographs. Nazi newspapers were printed in the millions. The Nazi message was pounded into the minds of every German. The Nazis received 6,371,000 votes, receiving 107 seats in the German Reichstag. Through this election, the Nazi Party went from the smallest to the second largest political party in Germany.

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January 1933 Hitler appointed Chancellor 

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January 1933 Hitler appointed Chancellor 

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Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany by German president Paul von Hindenburg out of intimidation of Hitler’s rising power. This new position allowed him to strengthen and grow his army, and increased his power and control.

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On February 27th, 1933, the parliamentary building in Berlin- the Reichstag, went up in flames from an arson attack. Adolf Hitler was able to use this disaster to claim that Communists were planning a “violent uprising”, and that emergency action was needed to stop them. This resulted in the abolishment of various constitutional protections, paving the way for a Nazi dictatorship- the rise of Adolf Hitler.

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On March 23rd, the Enabling Act was passed, allowing Hitler to pass his own laws without permission from the president or the Reichstag ( The German Parliament) for up to 4 years. Only Social Democrats voted against the act, but they were, at this point, in the minority. On this day Hitler was basically given the dictatorship of Germany, all the power was in his hands.

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Victims of the first Nazi concentration camp

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On this day the first concentration camp was built by the Nazi government, under Hitler’s command. Dachau became a model for future camps while also serving as a training base for SS concentration camp guards. Scholars believe that at least 40,000 prisoners lost their lives here.  At Dachau prisoners experienced medical experiments, forced labor, gas chambers, and other types of mass murder.

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On May 10th, 1933, university students across Germany burned over 25,000 books. The books consisted of Jewish authors, blacklisted American authors, and Democratic ideas. As students gave the Nazi salute, watching the flames, they were actively destroying evidence of ideas that contradicted Nazism. The burning was a planned event, reflecting the ultimate goal of destroying a culture. The burnings only gave Hitler more power, silencing the ideas of those who opposed him.

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July 1933: All Political Parties Outlawed

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July 1933: All Political Parties Outlawed

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On July 14th, 1933, Hitler passed the Law against Founding of New Parties. With this law, political parties other than the Nazi party became illegal, and were therefore disbanded or dissolved. This made Germany a one-party nation of dictatorship, where the law fell in the hands of the only surviving party- Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

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Hitler's old comrade Ernst Röhm, chief of staff of the SA, who was murdered during the Night of the Long Knives. 

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As the SA (The Sturmabteilung, a paramilitary organization associated with the Nazi party), grew in power and influence, Hitler grew anxious that they would take over ther part, threatening his dictatorship. So on June 30th, 1934, Hitler ordered his elite SS guards to murder SS leaders and any other perceived opponents. This event solidified Hitler’s complete control over the party as well as over Germany as a whole.

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President Hindenburg with Adolf Hitler before his death 

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August 1934: President Hindenburg dies- Hitler declares himself Fuhrer 

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August 1934: President Hindenburg dies- Hitler declares himself Fuhrer 

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Germany’s president Paul von Hindenburg dies on August 2nd at age 87. With his death, Hitler transitions from chancellor to a complete dictator of Gemrnay, combining the power of president and the offices of the chancellor. He called his new position the Fuhrer. To his credit, Hitler held a vite to see if the German population supported the transition, about 90% were in his favor ( regardless of the fact that these votes were likely a product of fear, intimidation, and brainwashing). It was with Paul von Hindenburg’s death that Hitler’s power became truly limitless.

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A chart explaining the "scientific" racial categories defined by the 1935 Nuremberg Laws. 

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On September 15th, 1935, Hitler passed two new laws related to race called the Nuremberg Laws. The first law called the Reich Citizenship Law made it so that those without “German blood”, (this targeted Jews, defined by Nazis as a different race), could not be citizens. This left Jews with zero political rights or equality under the law. The second law called the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor was basically a love law. It made what the Naxis called race-maxing illegal, banning future intermarriage or sexual relations between Jews and people of “German blood”. Hitler believed that these relationships were dangerous and undermined the purity of the German race. However, these laws also empowered non- "Aryan” Germans, giving Hitler and the Nazi party future power.

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The 1936 Berlin Olympic Games were used by Hitler as a show of Nazi propaganda. For those 2 weeks of sporting events, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi dictatorship was presented in a completely false light. The Nazi party’s racist, anti-semitic, military-focused agenda was covered by an image of a peaceful, tolerant Germany. The world was given a false narrative of Hilter and what he planned to do with his power, which prevented international interference. Hitler knew that foreign powers could threaten his dictatorship, so these Olympics were a big step in deceiving the rest of the world, empowering Hilter and his hidden intentions.

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Adolf Hitler wanted to control the culture of Germany as well as its politics. The Nazi party identified many modern artists that contradicted the Nazi ideology and were therefore labeled by Hitler as “sick” and immoral”. The Nazis destroyed, confiscated, and re-sold for profit these works of art, some of which were in modern German art museums. Pieces of confiscated art were displayed for the public in an exhibit in  Munich, called the “Degenerate Art Exhibition. This exhibition sent a message and threat to modern artists throughout Germany, giving Hitler the power of freedom of artistic expression.

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On November 9-10th, 1938, the Nazi party committed a series of pogroms against jewish communities in Germany later called the Kristallnacht/ The Night of Broken Glass ( because of the shattered glass that lined the streets from vandalized Jewish small businesses, synagogues, and homes). Jewish men were taken to concentration camps, while the pogroms were covered by the nazi party as simply “a spontaneous response of the german population to the assassination of Ernst vom Rath”- who in reality was killed by Nazis. Arrests were made across the nation for simply being jewish. Following this event Hitler ordered the Jewish community to pay 1 billion fee as an “atonement tax” (which in my opinion is scarily similar to the reparations that Germany was forced to pay after WWI that felt so unjust to Hilter and the Nazi party). This further disempowered the Jewish population in Germany, leaving many homeless, jobless, incarcerated, or stuck in concentration camps. This last event staged conditions perfect for a genocide, with all the power in the hands of the totalitarian government- Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party.

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1. https://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/elect.htm

2. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-reichstag-fire-and-nazis-rise-power-180962240/

3. https://www.annefrank.org/en/timeline/48/the-enabling-act-even-more-power-for-hitler/

4. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/goebbels-burnings/

5. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nazi-Party

6. https://digscholarship.unco.edu/ug_pres_2020/39/

7. https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/kristallnacht/index.asp

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Overview

That was the heart of the problem of German Jewry: It was so much a part of German society that the Nazi blow hit it from within. Until 1938 my parents never thought of leaving Germany. "There's no way the Germans we live with will continue to do these things. It's only an episode." That was the atmosphere. It was also the atmosphere on Kristallnacht. They couldn't comprehend it. It came as a blow. I remember my mother standing pale and crying... I remember her phoning her gentile friends - she had more gentile friends than Jewish friends - No answer. No one answered her.

Excerpt from the testimony of historian and Holocaust survivor Prof. Zvi Bacharach, who was ten years old when the events of Kristallnacht unfolded in Hanau, Germany. During the pogrom 91 Jews were murdered, more than 1,400 synagogues across Germany and Austria were torched, and Jewish-owned shops and businesses were plundered and destroyed. In addition, the Jews were forced to pay "compensation" for the damage that had been caused and approximately 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

From Our Collections

This exhibition depicts the brutal blow suffered by the Jews on Kristallnacht: the physical violence, the property damage, the synagogue desecration and destruction, and the horrifying sight of holy books and Torah scrolls in flames.

Using photographs, documents, personal letters, Pages of Testimony, films, testimony excerpts, artifacts and works of art from Yad Vashem's collections, the events of Kristallnacht are portrayed here as seen through the eyes of the Jews of Germany and Austria who endured them. Some of the stories displayed here are being told for the first time.

In Their Own Words

Marga Randall was born in Lemförde, Germany, in 1930. Marga's father had a fatal heart attack upon hearing of his imminent arrest by the Nazis. Marga sought refuge with her mother's family in the small town of Schermbeck, and after Kristallnacht Marga moved with her mother and sister to Berlin. They eventually immigrated to New York in 1941 via France, Spain and Portugal. In addition to establishing a family, Marga widely lectured on her experiences during the Holocaust, publishing her memoirs under the title Grandfather Didn't Come Home. Marga Randall passed away in 2005.
Yad Vashem Archives O.3/6995

Lore Mayerfield Stern, born in Marburg, Germany, talks about the Kristallnacht pogrom in Kassel, and how she and her mother hid in the home of their German neighbors to escape the violence and vandalism.

Shmuel Cohen, born in 1933 in Mannheim, Germany talks about the Kristallnacht pogrom and describes the burning of the Klaus Synagogue in Mannheim, the confiscation of his family's property, the burning of his father's books and his family's arrest and detainment at the police station.

Yossi Cohen, born in 1935 in Mannheim, Germany, talks about his father's choir song book, which survived the Kristallnacht pogrom. His father, Avraham-Arthur Kohn, was a Hebrew teacher and served as the cantor at the Klaus Synagogue in Mannheim.

Ehud Loeb was born in Bühl, Germany, in 1934. On October 22, 1940, Ehud was deported with his parents to France on a transport carrying 6,508 Jews. After a few days they arrived in the Gurs Concentration Camp in southwestern France. Those who managed to survive in the camp were deported in 1942 to Auschwitz, including Ehud's parents.

In 1941 permission was granted for the removal of children from the camp. The operation was carried out by the OSE organization, and children were allowed to leave the camp as long as parental consent had been granted and the children were enlisted either in churches or villages, so that the Gestapo would be able to locate them.

In August 1942 the Gestapo came searching for Ehud, and he was hidden amongst Christian families. Yad Vashem has recognized some of his rescuers as Righteous Among the Nations.
Yad Vashem Archives O.3/10574

Holocaust survivors from Würzburg, Germany, describe their experiences in Würzburg during the period of Kristallnacht and its aftermath

Survivors' names: Herbert Mai, Ellen Miles, Sidney Reiter, Jack Lewin, Margo Reiser, John Franklin, Margot Kaiser

The video is part of the exhibition The History of the Jewish Community in Würzburg.

Uri ben Ari was born in Berlin in 1925, and was eight years old when the Nazis rose to power. He fled from Germany in 1939 and settled in Israel. In addition to being a diplomat and a writer, he has filled numerous posts in the Israeli army.

Prof. Walter (Tzvi) Bacharach was born in Hanau, Germany, in 1928. During World War II, he was interned for almost 4 years in the Nazi camps of Westerbork, Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Taucha, Hasag, and Buchenwald. Forced on a death march, he was eventually liberated by the Americans. He is Professor Emeritus of General History at Bar Ilan University.

Excerpt from: German-Jewish life on the Eve of WWII, 2005
Directed By: Reuven Hecker
Producers: Noemi Schory, Liat Benhabib, Liran Atzmor, Itai Ken-Tor
Production Company: Belfilms Ltd.

Arnold Goldschmidt was born in Fulda, Germany, in 1922. Arrested during Kristallnacht, he was deported to Buchenwald concentration camp, where he was subjected to a brutal regime of forced labor and beatings. Arnold was eventually released and returned to his hometown of Fulda. He was later sent on a children's transport to Holland, where he lived in different children's homes. Immigrating to the United States, he later enlisted in the US Army. Arnold Goldschmidt immigrated to Israel in 1966.
Yad Vashem Archives O.3/V.T/3246

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The Kristallnacht Pogrom, 9-10 November 1938 - It Came From Within | Yad Vashem

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That was the heart of the problem of German Jewry: It was so much a part of German society that the Nazi blow hit it from within. Until 1938 my parents never thought of leaving Germany. "There's no way the Germans we live with will continue to do these things.