23rd November 1938
Duisburg: From a report just arriving here can be inferred:
In this city (numbering c. 440,000 residents) there has been particularly brutal rioting. The “spontaneous” events took place late at night. Noteworthy that the murderous rabble did not consist of locals. The perpetrators, mostly youths in their early 20s, may very well have come from Dortmund, in order to exercise “spontaneous vengeance” – in the city situated over 60 kms away. In north-west Germany this tactic of exchanging SA etc. appears to have been quite general: Dortmunders to Duisburg, Düsseldorfers to Wuppertal and Essen etc.; on the one hand to let no feelings of sympathy arise in case the operation should by chance be directed against personal acquaintances, on the other hand to avoid the identification of the perpetrators by the victims. According to consistent reports the mob was strongly under the influence of alcohol. Either the gangs became drunk beforehand, therefore – young lads famously react particularly quickly to the consumption of alcoholic drinks – in order to get them into pogrom mood (e.g. the “anniversary of the march on Munich [Beer Hall Putsch]” offered an external occasion for it) or during a break in the one-hour car journey to the area of operation free beer was donated. All the details of these measures must have been precisely arranged in advance of course, most probably well before the assassination of Herr vom Rath. Aryan eyewitnesses from Duisburg claim that the perpetrators pungently “stank of Schnapps”. Only in this way can it be explained psychologically that no inhibitions emerged amongst hundreds of young lads about participating in this barbaric mess. To be particularly emphasised: if e.g. the Dortmunders “operated” in Duisburg and in so doing with “German thoroughness” did not forget a single Jewish household, then they must have been in possession of carefully prepared lists of addresses besides however, given the expansion of the urban area (almost 100 square kilometres!), having worked Groß-Duisburg in accordance with precisely divided districts for every pogrom gang.
The details can scarcely be repeated. Not only men but also women and screaming children were mistreated by bearers of Nazi culture and chased outside in their nightclothes. Whatever could be destroyed was ruined. Linen, clothes and suits shredded with the “Blut und Ehre” dagger [of the Hitler Youth], fitted washstands, fitted majolica bathtubs were smashed with hammers, even wall panelling and linoleum flooring was wrecked. All male persons were seized without consideration for age limits (four exceptions are known, amongst them Rabbi N., a true minister, who has always given away his money for the needy down to the last Pfennig, yet whose home was also completely destroyed). The “arrested” were first of all taken to the police prison where the treatment was normal. From there all the Jews were taken away on 12th November, destination unknown. Police officers claim that the transports were destined for Dachau. (For those abroad: Duisburg-Dachau distance c. 600 km.) On 22nd November, thus ten days later, the women had still no news where the men were.
Two especially well-furnished homes, one of them a centrally located villa, escaped on 9th/10th November – almost inconceivably; presumably because the absence of the men of the house was known. Home “A.” was then subsequently smashed to pieces on 15th November, owner escaped abroad, villa “B.” also wrecked on 15th November, owner had returned in the meantime and was seized.
A Jewish lawyer was able to find refuge at the last moment with a Christian family. He “voluntarily” gave himself up for arrest on the following day because the Nazis had threatened his wife that she would be taken from her children and transported away if her husband did not report within 24 hours. A Jewish teacher also voluntarily gave himself up, his father, a frail man in his seventies, was said to have been taken hostage. A Jewish epileptic, 100% war-wounded, was released again.
The emotional state of the women, who were without news of the men for almost two weeks, cannot be described. Complete nervous breakdowns, incurable states of depression. After everything that the people have already suffered in recent years, robbed of income, businesses and all means of subsistence, now their last possession, the residence, the home, the children’s legacy, clothing and linen etc. was utterly ruined. Many got into hopeless debt in order to raise the funds for the officially ordered repairs of the windows, heaters, water pipes etc. – For intellectuals (doctors, lawyers etc. too) the whole library was destroyed, including the only opportunity to prepare themselves for employment abroad. (Specialist linguistic works purchased with sacrifices!)
A Jewish scholar in the Aachen area was ordered to go to the Gestapo in Cologne, where artistic and antique artefacts were laid before him for his appraisal – everything coming from Rhineland synagogues, amongst them also Thorarollen with the silver ritual objects etc. The objects had been carefully collected, obviously to special order in a certain district. Either the artistic value was recognised and it was desired to conserve them as museum pieces or, more probably, a far-sighted Gauleiter is convinced that rich communities outside Germany will purchase these sacred relics, some centuries old, in exchange for foreign currencies. If this case were to arise, only then would it become clear to the Nazis how stupidly they have behaved, and how much foreign currency value of the “German people’s wealth" they have destroyed through senseless barbarism, which could have brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars. One billion Papiermark wrung out of the Jews from domestic assets are in technical financial terms of lesser value, but in accounting terms can only mean that the Reich’s internal billion debt remains cut by one single Mark.
From the Hanau/Pforzheim area a reliable eyewitness report exists that the exchange of pogromists referred to above did not take place there, in almost all places the pillaging was done only by local murderous arsonists.
Occasionally reported that older Gestapo officers have even expressed to Jews their displeasure about the pogroms and the behaviour of the youth mobs. In one large mid-Rhineland city the senior Gestapo officer declared to a Jewish applicant who was waiting for an Auswanderungspass, "In your place I would not wait for these formalities at all, but rather cross the border illegally as quickly as possible....“, this in confidence, after he had previously behaved harshly in the presence of other officers.
