During the Nazi period , conflicts deepened in Jena between the influential left-wing milieus ( communists and social democrats ) and the right-wing Nazi milieus . On the one hand , the university suffered from new restrictions against its independence , but on the other hand , it consolidated the Nazi ideology , for example with a professorship of social anthropology ( which sought to scientifically legitimize the Racial policy of Nazi Germany ) . Kristallnacht in 1938 led to more discrimination against Jews in Jena , many of whom either emigrated or were arrested and murdered by the German government . This weakened the academic milieu , because many academics were Jews ( especially in medicine ) . In 1945 , towards the end of World War II , Jena was heavily bombed by the American and British Allies . 709 people were killed , 2,000 injured and most of the medieval town centre was destroyed , but in parts restored after the end of the war . Nevertheless , Jena was the Thuringian city whose level of destruction was exceeded only by Nordhausen , whose destruction was utter . It was occupied by American troops on 13 April 1945 and was left to the Red Army on 1 July 1945
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Jena