Historical Context
The Kindertransport
|The Rise of Hitler|
Hitler's 1925 autobiography Mein Kampf promoted Nazism and antisemitism. He blamed Jewish people for all of Germany’s problems.
[Mein Kampf, 1925, Blackwell's.]
After their defeat in WWI, Germany faced a severe depression, involving war debt and political instability. Hitler rose to power because he promised Germany better times. This appealed to German citizens because they wanted their nation to prosper.
"Hitler's rise to dictatorship is unthinkable without the humiliation and misery that resulted for the German people out of their defeat."
Klaus Schwave, "World War l and the Rise of Hitler," 2014, Diplomatic History.
"...the worldwide economic depression and the rising power of labor unions and communists convinced increasing numbers of Germans to turn to the Nazi Party."
"How Did Adolf Hitler Happen?," 2026, The National WWll Museum.
“The Nazis fed on bank failures and unemployment—proof, Hitler said, of the ineffectiveness of democratic government. Hitler pledged to restore prosperity, create civil order (by crushing industrial strikes and street demonstrations by communists and socialists), eliminate the influence of Jewish financiers, and make the fatherland once again a world power. “
"How Did Adolf Hitler Happen?," 2026, The National WWll Museum.
|Evian Conference|
In the 1930s, laws were enacted in Nazi Germany which made life miserable for Jews, forcing many of them to migrate. One hundred and fifty thousand Jews fled Germany by 1938, many of them wanting to seek out refuge in places like America, but were unable to due to immigration quotas.
The Evian Conference was held in France by President Roosevelt in 1938, who wanted to deal with the Jewish refugee crisis.
[Will the Evian Conference Guide Him to Freedom?, 1938, The New York Times.]
Thirty-two countries from primarily Europe and the Americas were involved and none of them were willing to help. Britain was one of them.
“The British delegate claimed that Britain was already fully populated and suffering from unemployment, so it could take in no refugees.”
"Evian Conference," 2023, Yad Vashem.
|Kristallnacht|
Kristallnacht occurred from November 9 to 10 in 1938. It was an anti-Jewish riot carried out by the Nazi regime, and happened in response to the assasination of a German diplomat.
“Jewish families were terrorised, businesses ransacked and men publicly beaten as synagogues across the Reich went up in flames.”
Caroline Sharples, "Kindertransport: Terror, Trauma, and Triumph," 2004.
[Burning of the synagogue in Hanover, Germany, 1938, Chapman University]
[Statistics relating to Kristallnacht, Worldwide, 1938, Statista]
Schools and orphanages were targeted as well.
"In Dinslaken the orphanage was forcibly entered during the night, the children driven out of the building and into the yard and the orphanage wrecked."
Alfred Cohen, "Report by Alfred Cohen Regarding the Destruction of the Orphanage," 1938, The Wiener Library.