Of
Berthold Neff
They have been discriminated against, marginalized and despised for years, and yet they showed great courage when what was most sacred to them went up in flames. On the night of November 9th, 1938, SA men in uniform broke into the synagogue of the orthodox Jewish community Ohel Jakob on Herzog-Rudolf-Strasse, bawled the Horst Wessel song, vandalized the cult objects and spilled petroleum and Gasoline to set everything on fire. Rabbi Ernst Ehrentreu tried to save the 70 Torah scrolls from the flames, but he couldn’t. The fire also damaged the Jewish elementary school next door, where he worked as a teacher. The lessons went on later, but it was the beginning of the end. On June 30, 1942, i.e. 80 years ago, all classes, including voluntary classes, for Jewish children were banned by a decree of the Reich Minister for Science, Education and Public Education, and the ban came into effect on July 1.