Before the outbreak of war in Europe, Jewish refugees tended to live in the affordable yet middle-class district of Kowloon Tong. They worked as merchants, teachers, doctors, engineers, musicians, butchers and artists, and their children also attended local schools. Evidence suggests that a loosely defined ‘community’ took shape among Jewish refugees in Hong Kong. Newspaper […]
The New Synagogue of Berlin on November 9/10, 1938
What exactly happened in and around the New Synagogue in the night of November 9 to 10, 1938 is not entirely clear. What is certain is that National Socialist and marauding groups gained access to the building, wreaked havoc, and began setting fires. However, the New Synagogue did not burn down that night. Contemporary witnesses […]
The Pogrom Night in Solingen
In the Pogrom Night from November 9 to 10, 1938, an SA troop first stormed the synagogue. Another group of high-ranking party officials, members of the city administration, and representatives of the business community joined in and brought sawdust as tinder. The men devastated the interior and set the wooden furnishings on fire with gasoline. […]
Pogrome night in Essen: The synagogue burns
In the night of November 9 to 10, the synagogue was set on fire. The wooden benches were burned, the lead frames of the beautiful stained-glass windows melted, and the Torah scrolls were torn out of their shrine and thrown onto the square in front of the Old Catholic Peace Church. Many people watched in […]
Pogroms on the island of Norderney
During the pogrom of November 1938, seven Jewish residents of the island were taken from their homes by SA men and detained for a day, being “displayed” in a public square. In a Jewish store that had been closed since 1936, the windows were smashed and the shop furnishings demolished; the warehouse was confiscated and […]
Destruction of the Halle synagogue
The exclusion, persecution, and expulsion of the Jewish community in Halle began even before the National Socialists seized power. Days before the “Reich-wide” boycott, Jewish stores, practices, and apartments were already being destroyed and looted here. Whereas, before 1933, many Jews in Halle often only visited the synagogue on high holidays, it now once again […]
Jewish Refugee Settlement in Hong Kong before the Pacific War (1938 – 1941)
Approximately 120 Jewish refugees settled in Hong Kong before the war, where immigration control was stricter than Shanghai, thanks to the employment opportunities provided by Hong Kong’s Jews. These employers-turned-philanthropists included the industrialist Lawrence Kadoorie, a director of China Light & Power (CLP – the electricity company for Kowloon and the New Territories); Aaron Landau, […]
Difficult escape by steamboat
Though Shanghai was the main pull for large-scale refugee traffic in Asia, approximately 1,200 European Jewish refugees also fled to Manila in the Philippines, another haven in Southeast Asia. Some refugees may have travelled to the Philippines through Hong Kong either by ship or airplane as a Pan American Airways flight connected the two port […]
“Norderney Jew-free”
Excerpt from a letter from the Norderney municipal council to the district president in Aurich, dated September 23, 1933: „… The attitude towards the Jews has caused Norderney tremendous damage. Thousands of German guests who used to come here for spa treatments have stayed away from the island because of the unbearable number of Jews. […]
“Boycott of Jewish businesses” in Solingen
The textile merchant Albert Tobias came from a Jewish family near Neuwied. In 1918, he married a non-Jewish woman from Solingen-Wald and founded a men’s clothing store there. Although not religious himself, his business, like many other shops and practices, was affected by the nationwide “boycott of Jewish businesses” on April 1, 1933. Nevertheless, the […]
Norderney after the so-called seizure of power
To get rid of the “stigma” of being a “Jewish bathing resort,” after the Nazi takeover, the local authorities made targeted attempts—primarily through the press—to keep Jews away from the spa; this was already largely successful in 1934/1935. Prior to 1933, “anti-Semitism at seaside resorts” was propagated primarily by spa and bathing guests, who influenced […]