CAUTION
14th November 1938
The reporter seeks help for his wife’s uncle, whose brother has lived here for several years. His wife’s uncle, who is seriously ill, was arrested and in the opinion of the family doctor direct mortal danger exists if help does not arrive promptly. (The reporter is Rein-Arier)
The reporter, a language teacher, had held a beginners’ course at half past seven on the morning of 10th November. Most of his pupils, exclusively SS men, were not present. He received the following reply to his question, “They have been ordered to smash window panes.” As a result the course was postponed until the afternoon as the participants had to “do their duty” in plain clothes during the whole morning.
Then on his way through the town to the east where he had to give lessons, the reporter saw how the shops of Jewish business people had been wrecked and he recognised a number of his students, SS men in plain clothes, amongst those doing the wrecking. When the window panes of a Jewish shop in A.-Strasse were broken, one old “onlooker” said to another, “Look at the mob, filthy rogues.” The remark was relayed by another to a policeman and the man, obviously non-Jewish, was immediately arrested. In the east, even in the poorer quarter of B., all the Jewish homes were wrecked and the men arrested. No homes were damaged in the west, but the men were arrested. In cases where the men were not found after repeated searches, the arrest of the women and children was threatened if the men did not give themselves up. Two cases are known where this threat was carried out, and in another the wife fetched her husband from the coal cellar.
According to statements made to me from more reliable sources in Frankfurt am Main, patients at the Jewish Hospital in Gagernstrasse were arrested from their beds. The rumour is going around that Rabbi Horovitz was burned in the synagogue; another rumour is that Horovitz must have been taken to a lunatic asylum.
Those who were arrested in Frankfurt am Main were assembled in the trade fair building and taken away in groups of 30. According to an eyewitness report they were mistreated in the most inhuman way in the open street.
A large number of homeless Jewish men from Frankfurt are roaming around in the Taunus without shelter because they are afraid of being arrested at home; a smaller number have been taken in secretly by Jewish and Christian friends in the vicinity.
Asked for his view of the purpose of the operation, the eyewitness stated that initially the intention was to occupy and destroy the street, but that it was widely accepted that there was a desire to exert pressure on “World Jewry”, now or at a later stage, to pay a ransom in foreign currency. Even from more moderate circles it was said, “Let those abroad quietly bleed a bit.”
Asked about the effect of the operation on the non-Jewish population, he reported that most watched completely disinterested. A smaller number were “glad” that at last things are being “tidied up” and an even smaller number were “ashamed”. There does not appear to be any public protest.