From the date to the correct description.
Here the learning direction is reversed: the date is supplied and you must choose the event. Among the four descriptions, only the destruction of Jewish businesses and synagogues matches the November pogroms of 1938.
The phrase “and their supporters” matters. Nazi leaders instigated the violence and organisations carried it out, but other people also participated. Responsibility therefore cannot be reduced to one perpetrator or a purely official state act.
The other three answers
The distractors mix other dates or invent a sequence.
The Second World War begins with the attack on Poland.
Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. This marks the beginning of the war in Europe, not 9 November 1938.
The National Socialists lose an election and dissolve the Reichstag.
9 November 1938 does not identify a lost election followed by dissolution of the Reichstag. The Nazi dictatorship had already removed free competition between parties.
Hitler becomes Reich President and has all parties banned.
This option mixes different steps in establishing dictatorship: other parties were eliminated in 1933; Hitler assumed presidential powers in 1934. The Nazi Party itself also remained in existence.
The answer is shorter than the historical events.
The exam answer focuses on businesses and synagogues. The violence directly targeted people and also destroyed homes and livelihoods. It was a further stage of antisemitic persecution.
9 November is the customary date of remembrance and reference. The attacks were not confined to that calendar day; the night leading into 10 November is especially relevant. The wording of the question does not negate that wider period.
November pogroms of 1938 · German Historical Museum ↗9 November 1938 → November pogroms, not the start of the war.
Learn 1938 and 1939 side by side: pogroms in November 1938; invasion of Poland in September 1939.
Three words for this question
- der Anhänger / die Anhängerinsupporter
- A person who supports a movement or leadership.
- zerstörento destroy
- To damage something so severely that it can no longer be used.
- die Lebensgrundlagelivelihood / basis of life
- What people need for their lives and means of support.