Language:
English
Year of publication:
1987
Titel der Quelle:
Leo Baeck Institute Year Book
Angaben zur Quelle:
32 (1987) 309-323
Keywords:
Kristallnacht, 1938
;
Jews History 1933-1939
;
Antisemitism History 1933-1939
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Abstract:
The outbreak of violence and destruction on 9 November 1938 ran counter to the Nazis' promises of law and order and to ingrained German values of respect for private property, the religion of others, and neighborliness. The symbolic aim of the pogrom was to reverse the humiliation of the Kaiser's abdication in 1918 and the failed Beer Hall Putsch of 1923. After his diplomatic success at Munich, Hitler could ignore world public opinion and he unleashed the SA against the Jews, supervised by the Gestapo. Apart from the burning of synagogues, the most important aspect of the pogroms was sadistic humiliation. At a meeting of high officials on 12 November, top Nazis fantasized about debasing the Jews. The bureaucracy's task was to fulfill these fantasies in the form of laws and regulations. The party concluded that the public would not show enthusiasm for attacks on the Jews, but would accept a secret and orderly campaign against them. The public humiliation of the Jews successfully destroyed their identity as Germans and "exposed" them as outcasts, in preparation for dehumanization and murder.
Note:
First appeared in German in the "Sigmund Freud House Bulletin" 10 (1986). Delivered as a paper at a conference organized by the Breuninger Kolleg, Stuttgart, April 1991, and published as "Die 'Reichskristallnacht' vom 9. zum 10. November 1938 als öffentliches Erniedrigungsritual" in the collection of the conference papers, "Antisemitismus" (1992) 39-61, with a discussion on pp. 62-64.
DOI:
10.1093/leobaeck/32.1.309
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
Permalink
