Dear Sirs,

I would further like to point out that, as I know from personal reports, the synagogue in Halberstadt is indeed still standing in its foundation walls, but the exceptionally valuable, because antique, furnishings have been utterly destroyed. To what extent the chandeliers, which date from the period 1660-1700, still survive, I do not know. In addition I do not know whether the curtains of the Aron Hakodesch, for the most part extremely valuable embroideries from about 1650, fell victim to the sweet rabble. The seething populace further amused itself by blowing up the mortuary at the Jewish cemetery, which was erected in 1895. This small excess did not really matter, however. For as I reliably hear, in Vienna not only was the mortuary dynamited but also the entire enclosing wall of the Jewish cemetery was dynamited there, so that the rabble could more easily vandalise the rest of the cemetery.

Excerpt from a letter by Herr Menko Max Hirsch, Antwerp, 26 Avenue Bosmans

[Handwritten:] B154, cf. B. W 8/12