At 10:00 AM Marga and Manfred watch with horror as their beautiful
synagogue bursts into flames and burns out entirely.
Who knows, maybe they fled from their house together with Mom.
Embers fly across and thick smoke penetrates through the broken
windows. Remember that the Nazis had smashed all the windows the
night before. To make matters worse Dad had been arrested! At 7:00
AM he and the other Jewish men had been thrown into jail and
subsequently transported to the concentration camp Buchenwald!
After this monstrous pogrom many Jews fled Germany.
Even Manfred has the opportunity to escape with a ‘Kindertransport’
(childrens’ transport) to the Netherlands. However their Dad, who in
the meantime had been released from the concentration camp
Buchenwald, didn’t want his family to be torn up more than it already
had been. Thus they remain in Burghaun hoping to be able to flee
together.
For Marga and Manfred daily life had changed dramatically. Nothing
was like it used to be! The Sabbath and the Holidays couldn’t be
observed according to the religious law any longer for everything
was lacking. The beautiful synagogue was a pile of rubble, and one
had to meet for services in private homes. The classroom in school
is totally demolished , but Mr. Adler the teacher continues with
teaching the four students from Burghaun in their homes. Even that is
over with in the summer of 1939 for all schooling is now prohibited.
Rear of the
Synagogue
after
'Crystal Night'
