The Pogrom of November 9–10, 1938 in Germany

Abstract

Interpretation of the pogrom of November 9–10, 1938 from an ethnic perspective must begin with some remarks on the applicability of the concept of ethnicity to the Jews in Germany. Then it will be necessary to explain the long-term background, the environment of the year 1938, the development of the pogrom itself, and some of its larger purposes. My re-examination of these themes is based above all on a reading of a collection of nearly 250 largely unpublished autobiographies of Germans and Austrians, mostly in German and of greatly varying lengths, written for the “My Life in Germany” prize contest sponsored by three Harvard professors in 1939. A high proportion of those who submitted essays were Jews, and they wrote for posterity about the frightful treatment they had endured. These autobiographies illuminate vividly the premonitions of the victims and their interactions with the perpetrators, who expressed their violent or murderous intentions and fantasies with a complete lack of restraint.*KeywordsConcentration CampWeimar RepublicNazi PartyMembership CardPrize ContestThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.