FPL12093 – Antisemitism in Germany: From “Machtergreifung” to the “Night of Broken Glass”

This lecture examines the anti-Semitism and persecution that led to Nazi Germany’s attempts to exterminate Germany’s/Europe’s Jewish population systematically. Focusing on the events from the Nazi accession to power in 1933 (Machtergreifung) to a date that will forever live in infamy, the night of November 9, 1938, Kristallnacht. November 9, 1938, is widely seen as a violent turning point in Nazi Germany’s persecution of the Jews. What led to the “Night of Broken Glass?” What were the consequences of this assault on Jews in Germany and Austria? And how does Germany today deal with its past?