“Today is the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the night in 1938 when German Nazis coordinated a nationwide attack on Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues. The attack was inspired by the murder of a German diplomat by a Jew in Paris. When Hitler heard the news, he got the idea to stage a mass uprising in response. He and Joseph Goebbels contacted storm troopers around the country and told them to attack Jewish buildings, but to make the attacks look like spontaneous demonstrations. The police were told not to interfere with the demonstrators, but instead to arrest the Jewish victims. Firefighters were told only to put out fires in any adjacent Aryan properties. Everyone cooperated.
“In all, more than 1,000 synagogues were burned or destroyed. Rioters looted about 7,500 Jewish businesses and vandalized Jewish hospitals, homes, schools, and cemeteries. Many of the attackers were neighbors of the victims. The Nazis confiscated any compensation claims that insurance companies paid to Jews. They also imposed a huge collective fine on the Jewish community for having supposedly incited the violence. The event was used to justify barring Jews from schools and most public places, and forcing them to adhere to new curfews. In the days following, thousands of Jews were sent to concentration camps.
“The event was called Kristallnacht, which means, “Night of Broken Glass.” It’s generally considered the official beginning of the Holocaust. Before that night, the Nazis had killed people secretly and individually. After Kristallnacht, the Nazis felt free to persecute the Jews openly, because they knew no one would stop them.”
from “The Writer’s Almanac,” on Minnesota Public Radio, 09 Nov 2013, 8 am EST (underlining added)
link to program website
QUESTION: Can you briefly describe one other example of twentieth-century tyranny from somewhere else in the world? What does Shakespeare’s play reveal about the tyrant’s mind?
photo credit: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/holoprelude/images/kn1.jpg
ENG10H World Literature 
Reblogged this on maroonballoon and commented:
As my tenth grade students are finishing MACBETH, this reminder appeared on the radio this morning. I have attached a question for them, to help those struggling to understand the value of an artists’ view.
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An example would be the leader of the ethnic cleansing taking place in Rwanda. Macbeth reveals that the leader feels very little, if any guilt for what is taking place. It may not be the actual leader but someone behind the scenes that is motivating him to do these things and convincing him not to feel guilty.
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Good point about people behind the scenes that may be providing the motivation, pressure or incentive. As for Rwanda, do you mean ethnic cleansing that took place?
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This story is reminiscent of many of the events of the “Arab spring,” when several groups of people in Middle Eastern countries revolted against unfair tyrants and dictators. I think Shakespeare shows us that these tyrants might start out as decent people, but as they gain power and rule through fear, they change into people unrecognizable from who they once were.
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Valuable observation about the transformational capacity of power. Humans like Macbeth may not even recognize themselves after a certain point in their change.
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An example of a 20th century tyrant would be Mao Zedong kick started the Great Leap Forward, an attempt to restructure the economy of China which created a famine that killed some 30M and set off a frenzy in China. Shakespeare’s plays show tyrants have minds that are different than normal people. Murder becomes a drug to them and they can never stop. They are never fulfilled and keep killing more and more people in attempt to find that fulfillment.
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Interesting set of observations. Your verb “kick started” catches my ear. Did you choose that word, or did someone else use it? I am not sure how to interpret it in terms of that policy. As for different minds, I wonder if that’s true. Maybe modern neuroscience has something to say about your theory. I also wonder what tyrannical need murder attempts to fulfill.
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What does Shakespeare’s play reveal about the tyrant’s mind?
Shakespeare’s play shows that powerful figures like Macbeth, are willing to do anything necessary to obtain more power. The play shows that a Tyrant’s mind is unique to most because their thoughts in their minds are unstable and irrational. When Macbeth gained power, his mind shifted into a more dark place, and he became completely selfish.
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So Macbeth’s mind becomes irrationally selfish. The tyrant thinks more and more of just himself, which causes the instability. This equation shows us something important about our ability to think of others.
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This post about Kristallnacht reminds me of the ethnic cleansing that took place in Rwanda starting in the late 20th century and continuing on today. Similar to Macbeth, the people participating in these genocides may have started with one goal. Usually, this goal is to gain something: power, money, land, resources, etc… However, as people start on a path to reach this goal, they often loose sight of their morals. Macbeth started as a man with strong morals and a present conscience, but as he strove for power and was pushed by his wife, his morals made his character nearly unrecognizable. This idea, of losing your morals in order to get something you want, must be remembered when pursuing a goal. One must decide what the consequences of their actions will be, and if others will be hurt along the path.
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Well-said. I appreciate your noticing Macbeth’s transformation. Over time, we can become someone other than we had imagined or hoped. We can hurt others without noticing. Macbeth, perhaps, is an extreme reminder, since he intends to hurt. From his stark story, we can take lessons for our less extreme and more subtle daily lives.
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One example of another tyrant during the 20th century would be Josef Stalin, he grew up in a family where his mother was very religious and encouraged him to be apart of the clergy, later on in his life however he was expelled from school and became an atheist who would then continue to murder millions of people. Shakespeare’s play reveals that Stalin’s later life hatred towards the clergy could be deprived from the resentment he gained during his earlier years.
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Interesting theory. I imagine you mean “derived from” in your last sentence. If so, that idea of resentment has me thinking about its presence in Shakespeare’s play. Could Macbeth have harbored resentment toward Duncan or others? If so, might that feeling help explain the extent of his murderousness?
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A twentieth- century tyrant that really catches my attention is Mao Zedong. He attempted to create an economy in China which had people giving up their own possessions which led to and created a famine that killed around 30 million people. Shakespeare’s play shows that tyrants once they start killing they can’t stop, and they start to kill one person after the next. This is like when Macbeth decided to rule he starts to change, and realizes that maybe his plan wasn’t such a good idea but at first he uses murder because to him it seems like a good plan. Once he kills one person, that leeds to having to kill another. Tyrants just continue on with their killing until someone can somehow find a way to stop them.
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Yes, and I particularly appreciate your noticing that “he realizes that maybe his plan wasn’t such a good idea.” For me, the core of the play lies in that very realization. Instead of an ah-hah moment of discovery, he has an uh-oh instance of recognition. I see his human conscience in this instant.
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The Bosnian Genocide is a relevant ethnic cleansing that has taken place a few years ago. Serbia attempted so exterminate the Bosniak population in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Shakespeare’s play relates to many dictatorships. It shows that some leaders will go to any extent in order to rule in ways they believe is right,
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Thank you for mentioning events from this part of the world. Two thoughts: first, I wonder about the differences between dictators and tyrants; second, what kind of “right” do dictators consider, when they kill thousands, or even millions of people, to achieve it?
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It seems that the most notorious and infamous tyrants are those who show no mercy and lack any human morals whatsoever (similar to an evolved Macbeth). We see these characteristics in modern day tyrants such as Joseph Kony, who operates with his group of enslaved soldiers in Uganda. Reoccurring traits seen in these “people” are irrationality, selfishness, and insensibility. At some point one would be able to argue that, after all the greed enters a person who craves power, he’s not even a person anymore.
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Well-phrased ending to your post. Could not have said it better myself. Your last sentence, then, makes me wonder what are the essential ingredients in being a full human. Your description of Kony and Macbeth give us a strong start in answering this important question.
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