30th November 1938

At the unemployment office Jewish young men who until now have been in receipt of unemployment benefit received notification that they had been contracted for work service to Gänserndorf, a place on the northern train line two hours from Vienna where barracks are being built, which – according to rumours – are intended for Jews evacuated from Vienna. The creation of these barracks would also confirm a communication received by me that an evacuation plan for the Jews of Vienna exists at the Gestapo.

It is confirmed to me from several quarters that the fire brigades sent out because of the Tempel fires were ordered to protect merely the neighbouring houses from the spread of the blaze, yet not to douse the Tempel themselves which were burning fiercely.

In the Seitenstettentempel, the oldest Tempel of Vienna, next to the office building of the Vienna Kultusgemeinde, even days after the 10th November the SA and SS were busy destroying the interior of the Tempel so that it is completely bare inside. This demolition could clearly be heard in the office building located next door which is constantly very much used by the public. – The places of worship that have not been burned down are supposedly to be used as warehouses, which would accord with [Josef] Bürckel‘s announcement in a major speech in Steyr directed "to all the workers in the Ostmark" on the 16th November, where he declared the following: "That synagogues as the rallying point for all agitation against us had to disappear, goes without saying. Here and there they were – no doubt in memory of the Egyptian grain trader Joseph – converted into grain stores. I consider this to be the most practical solution."

A 70-year-old Vienna rabbi was driven out of his home with his wife. His son-in-law, who was first dismissed, then however reappointed to the management of the factory in which he had been the Prokurist, was taken to Dachau on 10th November.

The Jewish head of an important Vienna company A. has been imprisoned for a day despite his war wounds – he possesses only one leg, and one arm is crippled – and must have been particularly badly treated as he had to spend a week in hospital.

At the well-known, formerly Jewish, Vienna department store Gernegroß “entry is forbidden to Jews".