On November 9th 1938 an event called Kristallnacht happened. It happened in Germany and Austria. Nazis, Stormtroopers, and average Germans "Aryanized" Jewish businesses. The Jewish businesses were sold at bargain prices determined by the Nazis. The main thing that happened during Kristallnacht is that stones were thrown at windows of the shops that belonged to Jews. The glass from the windows covered the ground and they looked like crystal which is where "Kristall-" came from. Since the event happened at night, "-nacht" came from that. Jews had their property destroyed and 191 synagogs were burnt down. Many Jews also didn't have time to flee so 30,000 Jews were taken to concentration camps that night. Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebells were the ones who were mainly in charge of the whole event but denied later. They had Nazis and Stormtroopers help take Jews to concentration camps or just destroy the businesses. Many Jews told or wrote stories about how the experience was for them. One of the Jewish men to speak of his unfortunate story was Frederic Morton. He was in Austria and in his house when Stormtroopers barged in and looked for valuables in his house. Shortly after the troopers went downstairs, Morton's father was taken away to a camp. Four months later Morton says his father returned home in a horrible condition but was somehow alive. Similar stories were experienced by many others but some weren't fortunate enough to have their family return home.
Kristallnacht was a terrible event triggered by many smaller issues. A big contributor to the event was fear. Some people were afraid of Hitler and his Nazis. They must have been worried that if they showed they stood against his ideas, he would do the same thing to them that he did to the Jews. This fear would have lead to people either helping the Nazis or becoming bystanders. Bystanders are a huge issue because that means the people know what's going on around them is wrong but they do nothing to stop it. Nobody stood up so Kristallnacht got worse since most people who knew it was wrong, just stood back and let it happen anyways. Since Kristallnacht was directed to the Jews, it's obvious that this is anti-semitism. But what lead to that could have bee prejudice. People were quick to judge that all Jews were the same and that the Jews are evil without even bothering to get to know the Jews and decide for themselves. Most people just quickly judged that all Jews were evil, which was promoted by propaganda. Hitler was made to look heroic and the Jews to look like terrible "things" that shouldn't even be considered humans. So much more triggered Kristallnacht like the laws, scapegoating, and peer pressure. The Nuremberg laws especially were discriminative to mainly Jews. Scapegoating is about blaming the Jews for all the misfortune that has happened to Germany and its citizens. Peer pressure also comes in. If someone goes along with throwing stones at Jewish shops, they will most likely pressure people they know into doing it too. But what really pushed all these conflicts over the edge was when on November 7th 1938, a man named Herschel Grynszpan shot a Nazi official in Paris. That's when Germany strongly took action and that's when Kristallnacht happened.
I think the scapegoating of the Germans towards the Jews is ridiculous. I think the whole matter is ridiculous. Germans blamed the Jews for all the misfortunes happening to them when in reality, it really isn't the Jews' fault. Then when they were pushed over the edge when Grynszpan shot a Nazi official, Hitler had Stormtroopers take it out on all the Jews. The Jews were then fined for something Hitler caused. I think it's Hitler who should be fined. I feel extremely sad and terrified for all the innocent Jews who died and had to go through all the discrimination. The stories told about how they were tortured and so lowly thought of made me sick to my stomach. Especially when one camp had Jews run and the Commandant used them for target practice or killed them for not liking the way they worked. What makes me find things even more terrible is that kids were involved in being tortured too. Not only do I feel sympathetic towards the Jews but I'm also shocked and disappointed by the other countries around the world. they saw what was happening and knew the Jews were suffering but hardly any country let Jews in. They turned the ship around and sent the Jews back to Germany. Back to where they came from. I think Kristallnacht and the entire Holocaust was one of the most horribly cruel events witnessed by mankind.
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