During the anti-Semitic outburst of
Kristallnacht,
the night of broken glass, and for the next several
days, you stay sensibly hidden. When you do emerge from your shelter, you
find that the SA thugs have destroyed the Jewish Community. Synagogues
have been burned and looted: holy books, Torahs, mezuzahs, and other
ritual objects lie in the gutter; Jews, many of whom believed that this
could never happen, are devastated by the tragedy, and confused about what
to do next.
You feel alone, abandoned, wishing someone would take you by the hand and
lead you to safety. But then a fragment of a saying from
Pirkei Avot crosses your mind:
If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
You never really
understood this saying before, but now you do; you've got to save
yourself: you are responsible for taking whatever action is needed to stay
alive. No one else can do that for you.
You are convinced that you will die if you remain in Germany. Denmark seems the safest and nearest country to which to flee.
If you choose to seek safety in Denmark, continue to page 39.
If you think that it will be too dangerous to flee, and you are better off trying to hide in Berlin, continue to page 40.