From Ulrich von Hassell's diary about the Kristallnacht
From the diary of Ulrich von Hassell, a German diplomat, about Kristallnacht
Source: U. v. Hassell, The von Hassell Diaries, (London, 1948), p.20 November 25, 1938, Ebenhausen.
I am writing under crushing emotions evoked by the vile persecution of the Jews after the murder of vom Rath. Not since the World War have we lost so much credit in the world. But my chief concern is not with the effects abroad, not with what kind of foreign political reaction we may expect - at least not for the moment. I am most deeply troubled about the effect on our national life, which is dominated ever more inexorably by a system capable of such things. Goebbels has seldom won so little credence for any assertion (although there are people among us who swallowed it) as when he said that a spontaneous outburst of anger among the people had caused the outrages and that they were stopped after a few hours. At the same time he laid himself open to the convincing replay that - if such things can happen unhindered - the authority of the state must be in a bad way. As a matter of fact there is no doubt that we are dealing with an officially organised anti-Jewish riot which broke out at the same hour of the night all over Germany! Truly a disgrace! Naive Party functionaries have freely admitted that.
