AQA A-LEVEL HISTORY 7042/2O ||Component 2O Democracy and Nazism: Germany, 1918–1945||QUESTIONS & ANSWERS MERGED|| GRADED A+

Section A Answer Question 01. Source A From the diary of Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda, 10/11 November 1938. Goebbels kept this private diary with the intention of publishing it at a later date. Ernst vom Rath’s death is reported; now everything is ready. I bring the matter to the Führer. He decides: let the demonstrations go on, withdraw the police. The Jews should get to feel the anger of the people. Some cowards hesitate but I keep pushing on; we cannot leave unanswered this murder. Messages are now coming in from all over the Reich: 50, then 75 synagogues are on fire. The Führer has ordered that 30 000 Jews be arrested immediately. They should see our patience is exhausted. Now the people’s anger is raging. Bravo! Bravo! As expected, the whole nation is in turmoil. However, if we let this go on then there is a danger that the mob will appear. The Führer agrees that the actions must stop but they will have to repair their shops themselves; the insurers will pay them nothing. Then the Führer wants to gradually take over the Jewish businesses. We are now awaiting the effects abroad. Silence for now but the noise surely will come. 5 10 Source B From a report, sent to the US government, by the American Consul in Leipzig, Germany, 21 November 1938. The violation of Jewish property which began on 10 November 1938, was subsequently hailed in the Nazi press as a ‘spontaneous wave of righteous indignation’. As far as most of the German population is concerned, such indignation is non-existent. On the contrary, all of the local crowds observed were obviously horrified by the unprecedented fury of the Nazi acts. Three synagogues in Leipzig were fired and silent and bewildered crowds come to view their blackened frames. The Nazis threw some trembling Jews into a stream, commanding horrified spectators to spit at them and jeer at their plight. This has been corroborated by several German witnesses, sickened at telling the tale. The slightest show of sympathy evoked a positive fury from the perpetrators, and the crowd was powerless. This consulate has been a frenzied centre of humanity for the past 10 days. Victims with bloody, badly-bruised faces and many desperate Jewish women, whose husbands and sons have been taken off, have fled here, seeking to emigrate. 5 10 3 IB/M/Jun23/7042/2O Turn over ► Source C From a letter describing Reichkristallnacht to her son in Palestine, from the Jewess, Betty Scholem, March 1939. Betty had emigrated to Australia after Reichkristallnacht. Reichkristallnacht was organised much like a military mobilisation. The Nazis were just waiting for an excuse and, even without Paris, would have created one. The SA was ready to lead the so-called outbreak of some collective national frenzy of ‘public outrage’. On 10 November 1938, all hell broke loose and the fire department was only allowed to prevent the fires from spreading to neighbouring houses, leaving the synagogues to burn to the ground. The next morning, the ‘laws’ appeared. The Jews were to pay for the damage, not receive any insurance money and their businesses were to be taken over by January 1939. Jews were banned, by law, from the theatre, the movies, museums, sporting events, public swimming pools and were expelled from all the schools and colleges. Approximately 20 000 men were arrested in Berlin alone, some of them snatched off the streets. People were forced to endure terrible suffering; there were so many deaths, it was simply horrific. 5 10 0 1 With reference to these sources and your understanding of the historical context, assess the value of these three sources to an his