In interwar Germany, Jews were full citizens and were largely integrated into society. For many, Germany was their homeland, and they identified themselves as “German Jews.”
With the rise of Nazism to power, between 1933 and 1941 the regime promoted Jewish emigration through a series of legal measures designed to isolate, impoverish, and exclude Jews from public life. The first nationwide antisemitic action was the boycott of Jewish businesses and professionals. This was followed by expulsions from the civil service, economic restrictions, exclusion from universities, and limitations on access to public spaces. At the same time, Nazi propaganda spread antisemitic stereotypes and sought to socially legitimize persecution and harassment.
Anti-Jewish policy became more radical with the enactment of the Nuremberg Laws. From their promulgation onward, Jews lost German citizenship, were excluded from numerous professions, and were forced to sell property at prices far below market value. In addition, marriage and sexual relations between Jews and “Aryans” became criminal offenses, deepening both legal and social segregation. Despite these measures, by 1937 the Nazis believed that Jewish emigration was progressing more slowly than expected. Although isolation and poverty had increased, only about one quarter of Germany’s Jewish population had left the country.
The year 1938 marked a turning point. In March, Germany annexed Austria through the Anschluss, and from that moment intimidation and violence against Jews intensified. In July, the Évian Conference, held in France, attempted to find destinations for Jewish refugees, but most of the 32 participating countries refused to expand their immigration quotas. This refusal reinforced the Nazi perception that the world showed little interest in stopping discrimination against Jews. That same year, the regime forced Jewish emigrants to stamp their passports with a red “J” and to add the names “Israel” for men and “Sara” for women. In October, 18,000 Jews holding Polish passports were expelled, and Jewish children were excluded from the educational system.
The culmination of this process was the November Pogrom, commonly known as Kristallnacht (“Night of Broken Glass”), which took place on November 9–10, 1938. Following the assassination in Paris of diplomat Ernst vom Rath by the young Jewish man Herschel Grynszpan, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels used the event to incite a wave of violence. Over the course of two nights, paramilitary groups, members of the Nazi Party, and some civilians attacked the Jewish population, murdered hundreds of people, assaulted Jewish women, and destroyed property. More than 30,000 Jewish men between the ages of 16 and 60 were sent to concentration camps. In addition, hundreds of synagogues were burned or demolished, and 7,500 businesses were destroyed.
Although many Germans rejected the violence, the pogrom had a profound psychological and material impact on the Jewish population. The attacks demoralized Jewish communities, accelerated emigration, and demonstrated that anti-Jewish persecution had evolved from legal and social exclusion into open, organized violence supported by the Nazi state.
