The Development of Anti-Semitic Policies, 1938-40
Anschluss and Expansion of the Lebensraum
By late 1937, the Four-Year Plan had begun to improve the economy and the military situation in
Germany
Cautious policymakers e.g. Schacht, Bloomberg and Fritsch were swept aside in favour of more
radical antisemites e.g. Goering
March 1938: Anschluss (unification of Germany and Austria) achieved ---> ‘bloodless victory’
further emboldened Hitler
The occupation of Austria led to a rapid acceleration of the economic campaign against the Jews
March 1938: another ‘bloodless victory’ over Czechoslovakia – Britain and France allowed the
German takeover of the Sudetenland (had a large German minority population)
August 1938: Nazi-Soviet Pact of non-aggression ---> USSR agreed not to prevent German
invasion of Poland
1st September 1938: Britain declares war on France in response to the invasion of Poland
3rd September 1938: France declares war on Germany
Anti-Semitic Decrees, April-November 1938
April 1938: Decree of Registration of Jewish Property confiscated Jewish-owned property <=
5000 marks
April 1938 = 40,000 Jewish businesses ----> 1939 = declined to 8000
30,000 Jewish salesmen lost their jobs due to legislation
Jews lost their entitlement to public welfare, meaning they had to rely on increasingly burdened
Jewish charities, such as the Central Institution for Jewish Economic Aid
October 1938: passports had to be stamped with a ‘J’ to single them out
1939: Jews with non-Jewish names had to change them
Reichkristallnacht, ‘Night of the Broken Glass’ - 9-10 November 1939
Nazi propaganda claimed that the pogrom was an outpouring of anti-semitic sentiment by the
public, and that the ‘National Soul has boiled over’
Hitler was concerned about the perception of the uncontrolled violence ---> afterwards, he
ordered Goering to coordinate a response
BUT Reichkristallnacht was organised by Nazi leadership and the perpetrators were SA and SS
men
The Nazis exploited the murder of a minor German official – Ernst vom Rath – by Herschel
Grynszpan, a Polish Jew angry at the treatment of his parents by the Nazis, in order to justify
their anti-Jewish terror
Instigator of the pogrom = Goebbels ---> careful to orchestrate propaganda to separate the
Nazis from the event, but also wanted to mark the 15 th anniversary of the Munich Putsch with a
‘spectacular’ event to please Hitler
91 Jews were killed and thousands injured
Anschluss and Expansion of the Lebensraum
By late 1937, the Four-Year Plan had begun to improve the economy and the military situation in
Germany
Cautious policymakers e.g. Schacht, Bloomberg and Fritsch were swept aside in favour of more
radical antisemites e.g. Goering
March 1938: Anschluss (unification of Germany and Austria) achieved ---> ‘bloodless victory’
further emboldened Hitler
The occupation of Austria led to a rapid acceleration of the economic campaign against the Jews
March 1938: another ‘bloodless victory’ over Czechoslovakia – Britain and France allowed the
German takeover of the Sudetenland (had a large German minority population)
August 1938: Nazi-Soviet Pact of non-aggression ---> USSR agreed not to prevent German
invasion of Poland
1st September 1938: Britain declares war on France in response to the invasion of Poland
3rd September 1938: France declares war on Germany
Anti-Semitic Decrees, April-November 1938
April 1938: Decree of Registration of Jewish Property confiscated Jewish-owned property <=
5000 marks
April 1938 = 40,000 Jewish businesses ----> 1939 = declined to 8000
30,000 Jewish salesmen lost their jobs due to legislation
Jews lost their entitlement to public welfare, meaning they had to rely on increasingly burdened
Jewish charities, such as the Central Institution for Jewish Economic Aid
October 1938: passports had to be stamped with a ‘J’ to single them out
1939: Jews with non-Jewish names had to change them
Reichkristallnacht, ‘Night of the Broken Glass’ - 9-10 November 1939
Nazi propaganda claimed that the pogrom was an outpouring of anti-semitic sentiment by the
public, and that the ‘National Soul has boiled over’
Hitler was concerned about the perception of the uncontrolled violence ---> afterwards, he
ordered Goering to coordinate a response
BUT Reichkristallnacht was organised by Nazi leadership and the perpetrators were SA and SS
men
The Nazis exploited the murder of a minor German official – Ernst vom Rath – by Herschel
Grynszpan, a Polish Jew angry at the treatment of his parents by the Nazis, in order to justify
their anti-Jewish terror
Instigator of the pogrom = Goebbels ---> careful to orchestrate propaganda to separate the
Nazis from the event, but also wanted to mark the 15 th anniversary of the Munich Putsch with a
‘spectacular’ event to please Hitler
91 Jews were killed and thousands injured
