Persecution of Jews

• Boycott of Jewish shops and businesses (1933)

  Nazi campaign against Jewish shops and businesses
• Boycott of Jewish shops and businesses (1933)

  1. Nazi Party announced boycott

  2. SA stormtroopers painted Jewish stars/word 'Jude' outside businesses

  3. Stormtroopers stood outside with banners discouraging people from going inside
• Nuremberg Laws (1935)


  Set of changes that increased persecution of Jews
• Reich Law on Citizenship

  • Only those of German blood could be German citizens
  • Jews became German 'subjects', not citizens
  • Jews lost rights of citizenship, right to vote, hold government office or German passports
  • Jews required to wear yellow star-shaped patch
• Reich Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honour


  • Forbade Jews from marrying German citizens
  • Forbade sexual relations between Jews and German citizens
• Definition of Jew in Reich Law on Citizenship

  Anyone with three or four grandparents who practised the Jewish religion
• Persecution of Jews after 1935

  1. From March 1938, Jews had to register all possessions

  2. From July 1938, Jews had to carry identity cards

  3. In November 1938, persecution of Jews became even worse
• Kristallnacht


  1. 10 November 1938
• Herschel Grynszpan


  17-year-old Polish Jew who went into the German embassy in Paris, randomly picked a German, Ernst vom Rath, and shot him
• Grynszpan was angry at the Germans


  For the way they had treated his parents
• Vom Rath was seriously wounded and rushed to hospital
• Joseph Goebbels


  Nazi Minister for Propaganda
• Goebbels' actions


  1. Ordered local papers in Hanover to print articles condemning the Paris shooting

  2. Used the SA, SS and Gestapo to attack local synagogues and the houses of local Jews

  3. Turned the violence against Jews in Hanover into a nationwide attack
• Vom Rath died on 9 November
• Hitler


  Agreed with Goebbels to turn the violence against Jews in Hanover into a nationwide attack
• Instructions given by Nazi leaders


  1. Arrange attacks on Jews and their property, but do so under cover

  2. Police told not to prevent any violence against Jews by members of the public

  3. Local SS groups told to arrest as many Jews as the prisons could take
• Violence on 9-10 November

  • Gangs smashed and burned Jewish property and attacked Jews
  • An 18-year-old Jew being thrown from a third floor window
  • Gangs in Nazi uniforms, SA and Hitler Youth, told not to wear uniforms so violence would seem by the general public
• Some Germans were horrified, others watched with pleasure or joined in
• Official figures listed 814 shops, 171 homes and 191 synagogues destroyed, and about 100 Jews killed
• The damage was so bad that these events were called Kristallnacht (Crystal Night) or the Night of Broken Glass
• Goebbels blamed the Jews for starting the trouble on Kristallnacht and announced they would be punished
• Jews were fined 1 billion marks to pay for the damage
• By 12 November, 20,000 Jews had been rounded up and sent to concentration camps