Your studies mean so much to you that they nearly blind you to what is happening in the streets of berlin. Every day, you hear of beatings and murders. You saw a Chasid being dragged through the streets by his beard.
But those are Eastern European Jews,
you try to persuade
yourself. They are not like me. Here, in the cradle of western civilization,
here in this land of fine music, art, and culture, here no one would attack
me. I'm more like the Germans now than I am like those foreigners.
You are listening to the radio on November 9, 1938, when you hear that a Jewish young man, upset because his parents had been arrested in Poland, had shot, and killed an official of the German Embassy in Paris. Suddenly, the streets are filled with gangsters wearing Brownshirt uniforms. It is clear that the government has let them loose to destroy the Jewish community. Books are thrown out into the street and burned; store are looted and destroyed; people are humiliated, hurt, even killed. From your window, you can see a crowd ripping up a Torah and laughing as the pieces float down the sewer.
Kristallnacht,
the night of broken glass, convinces you that you
made a mistake. Now you must take action.
If you try to leave Germany, continue to page 19.
If you think leaving will be impossible and try to hide in Berlin, continue to page 20.