Cologne: The premises of the large porcelain trader Marcan were also wrecked during the “Juden-Unruhen”. The major warehouse for the finest luxury porcelain was completely smashed to pieces. At the time of the “calamity” the warehouse was in the possession of a Swiss company and insured in Switzerland. It is reported that the Swiss insurance company has already filed a case against the Reich, the damages being estimated at RM. 750,000.
A party of Auslandsdeutsche had stopped off at a Cologne Hotel, amongst whom there happened also to be a man with a Jewish-sounding name. During the night he was sought out – after much knocking: “Kriminalpolizei, open up immediately!” – he believed it was a practical joke by one of his fellow tourists and answered with a “German greeting”. Upon which the official said: “I’m counting to three, and then we’re going to knock the door in, you pay for the damage!”
Two SS men in uniform, two officials in plain clothes. Despite unsuspicious “Aryan” papers a disturbing interrogation nevertheless. Upon which a neighbour from the room next door appears and asks for peace at night. “Shut your mouth, or you’ll get to know a concentration camp!” The man justifies himself as a subject of his Britannic Majesty ..., a four-fold “Heil Hitler” and four Gestapo officials go forth to another hotel.
An Aryan industrialist from Düsseldorf applied for a new passport (November 1938). When it was issued at the passport office he had to sign a declaration on the back: “I pledge that I will never enter into contact with any German émigrés when travelling abroad. It has been made clear to me that I face punishment if I act otherwise, similarly if I fail to remain silent about the existence of this declaration.”
A more senior SS official had reported to friends: the lack of manpower does not justify us in feeding productively idle citizens. An employment law is being prepared that will provide for a Jewish workforce too. All Jews who do not emigrate immediately will be affected by this. It is anticipated that the new laws will come into force on 1st April 1939 at the latest.
An arisiert company in Cologne was informed by the lord mayor that the Steuerverwaltung had requested the appropriate excerpt from the commercial register, “so that you can be struck off the list of Jewish companies...”
Written No. Ju/Ka……. “Ju/Ka” stands for Juden-Kartothek
Reporter: Moritz Heimann, Antwerp