29th November 1938

The Hilfsverein is working again under Herr Hans Jacoby [Jacobi]'s direction.

No longer are there food shortages. The signs in the shops "No food will be sold to Jews“  have mostly been removed.

The synagogues were closed by the police. The walls are still standing, the windows are charred.

It was reported to us from Cologne that on the night in question from 9th to 10th November the Deputy Rabbi of the Orthodox community, Herr G., was phoned at c. half past 12 from Polizeipräsidium, Neumarkt, that he should be ready on the street with the keys to the synagogue, he would be collected in ten minutes by the Überfallkommando. The Kommando then drove him to the synagogue at St. Apernstraße. The Thorarollen were collected and taken to the Polizeipräsidium under his escort. At half past 2 the devastation of the synagogue happened. – The next morning the Deputy Rabbi was called from the Polizeipräsidium again with the request to collect the Thorarollen again and to store them in his home. The same measures did not take place at the other synagogues.

It seems that no new arrests occurred in Cologne during the week from 22nd to 29th November.

Unbedenklichkeitsbescheinigungen for emigrants have been issued in recent weeks. Passports have been issued to the relatives of people who were sent to concentration camps. A technical difficulty and delay in issuing passports came about because Anträge for issuing passports have to be personally signed. That cannot apply to people who are in concentration camps. Polizeipräsidium refused to send such Anträge to Dachau for signature. Members of the family who travelled to Dachau with these Anträge returned again with the matter unresolved. Emigration can therefore only be continued to its full extent if the persons concerned are released from Dachau after the Genehmigung of the application from the Hilfsverein.

For some families who had notices to quit their homes by the end of November I succeeded in accommodating them with other Jewish families, partly with owner-occupiers living in their own houses, partly tenants renting from Jewish house owners. Nevertheless most homes have notices to quit by the end of March, some at the end of December. Accommodating these people will be very hard particularly as local families have to accommodate the influx of people from the countryside.

Up to now nothing is known about new buildings of urban barracks as ghetto quarters.

The mood of the Jews at this point can be characterised as a certain deadening in consequence of the insane commotion of the first days. Everyone is thinking of nothing but their own emigration without asking what kind of climate or what employment possibilities the land that is finally chosen might offer. The general motto is "Get out of Germany as quickly as possible." Even the oldest people want to leave as fast as possible.

The Jewish shops are boarded up, of course no shop business is happenng.