November 9th/10th 1938

On November 9th, 1938 everywhere in Germany synagogues were set on fire.

In Oldenburg all male Jewish citizens were put under arrest.

On November 10th they were paraded from the police headquarters through the inner city to the local prison.

On November 11th their deportation to the concentration camp of Sachsenhausen followed.

Only a few managed to emigrate – many of them were murdered.

601 Oldenburg, Elisabethstraße,
November 10th, 1938


Joachim Max de Jonge – then thirteen years old – reports about his experiences that night: „At about 2 o’clock our teacher Freund, a friend of ours, came to our house with his wife, who lived on the floor above the school. They told us how the pogrom night had raged with them, how they were beaten and how everything was burned. …”
as pdf


An article of the local Nazi press said: People’s fury let out – massive outrage in Oldenburg. Synagogue set ablaze.
In: Oldenburgische Staatszeitung, November 11th, 1938


Heinrich Hirschberg remembers:
“… About 40 men, […], were led along the still burning synagogue. From there they were taken through bustling shopping streets like Haarenstraße – Lange Straße […] straight to the prison. There were dodgy characters loitering about everywhere […].
Only some school boys, who apparently had a day off because of the anti-Jewish campaign, were making fun of us. […] ”
(Heinrich Hirschberg, New York, written in January 1939)
more detailed pdf


“Late in the evening, the phone rang …”
Memories of State Rabbi (Landesrabbiner) Dr. Leo Trepp
(written in 1973) pdf

5_11_1988c
In the night of the pogroms more than walls and glass were broken – the events of 50 years ago. November 5th 1988.
Source: Nordwest-Zeitung, Oldenburg
Article as pdf

Michael Daxner
The splinter of evil
Memorial speech on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the pogroms on November 9th, 1988
Westerstede, November 10th, 1988

State Rabbi (Landesrabbiner) Dr. Leo Trepp with his mother-in-law, Mrs. de Haas, in the spring of 1938 in front of the synagogue in Peterstraße.

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