Nazis are well-known for their anti-Semitic feelings. During the Nazi's regime the Jews were constantly exposed to Germans' whims and hence the following repression towards them. One of the Nazis' notorious acts was the pogrom of November 1938, later known as "Crystal Night" or the "night of broken glass." What happened during that night conspires of violence and terror. Violence, after all, was glorified in Nazi Germany. The Nazis hated Jews, and the reason why this antagonism existed was that Jews represented what Nazis most hated in themselves. This feature is the most important reason why monstrosities occurred during the Nazi regime.

Violence exists in each one of us from the day we are born, but the potential for it is more expressed in some than in others. The way we have been taught by our parents determines our future behavior. Bettelheim points out that we are born with opposite tendencies and that "these must be carefully nurtured if they are to counterbalance those which push us to act violently" (Violence 189). Unfortunately, the Nazis were oppressed from their early childhood. Susan Griffin in "Our Secret" states the advice German child-rearing experts gav

The violence performed in the night of November 9 was performed mainly by individuals who were "scarred by physical defect, grave psychological handicap, or simply vicious fate" (Todorov 122). These people were mostly Germans born outside Germany who desired to prove themselves true Germans. But despite their wanting to be true Germans, Himmler "supposedly even gave instructions to remove from duty any SS man who appeared to take pleasures in hurting others" (qtd in Facing the Extreme 122). It is again evident that Himmler wished to redefine himself. His father acted towards him violently, and Himmler did not want to repeat his father's mistakes. Because his memory was full of examples of violence, the orders Himmler gave were superficially lacking in brutality, but they in fact resulted in violence even though Himmler himself did not act directly. His whole behavior was influenced by his early memories (repressed memories) without his knowing this fact.

Bettelheim considers the Nazi's acts a result of "inner dissatisfactions with [them]selves for not being able to be the person [they] want to be" (Violence 191). The Nazis tended to behave in such a way that the inner difficulties were not surmounted but projected onto the people outside themselves (Facing the Extreme 253). It seems then, that their demerits reflected on Jews. Instead of trying to overcome their problems, Germans sought somebody to relieve their pain and despair. They considered violence on Jews as an excuse for their drawbacks, and it is astonishing how the Nazis dared to punish what they missed in themselves. A natural defensive act is to attack the weakest point of the self. When we want to eradicate what we do not like in ourselves, we try to do it on others, wrongly thinking that it would work. Griffin uses the example that when "boys or young men attack a man they find effeminate or believe to be homosexual they are trying to put at a distance all traces of homosexuality in themselves" (359).

Bettelheim, Bruno. Surviving. New York: Knopf, 1979. 185 - 201.

Later on Heinrich Himmler was supposed to say that "Protective custody is an act of care" (qtd in "Our Secret" 326). As I mentioned earlier, the Nazis' violent acts were the product of inner dissatisfaction. In order to satisfy their needs they did "care" about Jews because as Tzvetan Todorov, a renowned writer and critic, mentions, "caring about others can produce inner satisfaction" (104). Here, this "caring" has distorted meaning, as in my opinion caring could not be a protective custody. But from the point of view of the Nazis, and especially Himmler, it was in fact a form of protective custody. Because Himmler was afraid of the Jews' power and of their subverting the existing regime, he ordered

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)