Crystal Night
Source Based
Source C is important because it is written by Joseph Goebbels. It was
produced on the 12th November 1938, it is an extract from a Nazi
newspaper, which means it is biased. The Nazis would want to portray
that they had nothing to do with organising Crystal Night.
Furthermore, Goebbels is the head of propaganda. Goebbels was a
notorious liar and it was his policy that, “the bigger the lie, the
more people will believe it”.
Source D, is written by Goebbels but this time it paints a very
different picture of what went on. He writes how big anti-Semitic
demonstrations are taking place, it would have been impossible for
Goebbels to know this in advance unless he had a hand in the
organisation. His entry on Nov 9th, Crystal Night, tells how the
police were ordered to let the Jews feel the anger of the people.
Goebbels must have realised that his diary would be read so diary
entries like this should be treated with caution. In source D there is
never any mention of a direct order for the violence to take place,
just a suggestion that the leaders would not object, this is because
they do not want to get the blame later on. This source contradicts
the previous source, which is written by the same person, this
completely discredits both sources as the first clearly states the
Nazis had nothing to do with the violence, the second says quite the
opposite.
Source A is from the leader of the SS General Heydrich with
instructions to the Nazi police on how to treat the events.
They blamed the events of Crystal Night on the assassination of a Nazi
by a Jew on 7th November 1938, the Nazi actually died on the 10th, the
source was produced in the early hours of the morning of the 10th
before his death, and so must have been written and planned
beforehand. There are also details in the document that suggest that
the Nazis knew what was going to happen.