Language:
English
Year of publication:
2008
Titel der Quelle:
German Studies Review
Angaben zur Quelle:
31,3 (2008) 471-488
Keywords:
Grynszpan, Herschel Feibel,
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Abstract:
On 7 November 1938, the 17-year-old Herschel Grynszpan shot the German diplomat Ernst vom Rath in Paris, providing the pretext for the launching of the "Kristallnacht" pogroms. Although Grynszpan had acted on his own, the Nazi regime portrayed him as an instrument of "world Jewry". Explores the efforts of the regime to exploit the murder of vom Rath for the purposes of anti-Jewish propaganda. Grynszpan was arrested by the French police. Following the occupation of France, German officials began to plan an ambitious show trial for Grynszpan. The trial never came to pass (for fear of rumors of a homosexual relationship between Grynszpan and vom Rath), but it is important to examine the significance of the preparations for this show trial for understanding Nazi propaganda designed to legitimize the deportations and other anti-Jewish measures during World War II, and to pin the guilt for the war on the Jews. Grynszpan's fate is unknown, but he was probably executed in the summer of 1942, when the idea of the show trial was abandoned.
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