The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939-1945

by Nicholas Stargardt

War immediately provoked fears of a new pogrom. Instead, Jochen Klepper and Victor Klemperer were astonished to find that the media quickly toned its anti-Semitic rhetoric down, perhaps as a gesture towards its new Soviet ally. Then, at 9.20 p.m. on 8 November, a bomb went off without warning in the Munich beer cellar where the ‘old fighters’ of the Nazi movement were gathered for the annual celebration of their putsch attempt of 1923. Hitler had left to catch the train back to Berlin a mere ten minutes before the bomb exploded in the pillar behind the podium where he had stood, killing eight people and injuring sixty-four others. As news of the assassination attempt spread the next day, many employers called special workplace meetings and extra assemblies were held at schools where the children gave thanks for the Führer’s providential escape by singing the Lutheran hymn ‘Now Let All Give Thanks to God’. People spoke bitterly about those they presumed to be responsible for the attack – ‘the English and the Jews’ – and expected retaliation against both.