Ezra Adalheim

November 10, 1938

I just woke up from a dreadful night of sleep.  Last night was probably the worst night I had ever lived to see.  There were Nazi soldiers everywhere, attacking my Jewish friends and vandalizing their homes.  I felt bad for them.  My acquaintance, Jacob, got killed in the riot that the German soldiers participated in.  That whole event got me very depressed.  I can’t believe that something like that would happen to a specific group of people (Jews).  I was asleep at about midnight and I woke up due to a loud smash just outside my house.  It was my neighbor’s windows getting drilled by stones.  I couldn’t bear to watch those terrible things occur to people I know and even others that I didn’t know.   I was too scared to do anything about it.  My wife and I were in our bedroom, looking out the window, and we saw a bunch of other Germans in uniform going into houses and businesses, and they threw stones at the windows, making them shatter.  Luckily my family came from a Catholic religion.  I am so happy that our house was untouched in the attack of the Nazis, but unfortunately a lot of people [Jews] were harmed in the attack.  A man I know named Abram was beaten during the attack (he lives two houses away from me).  I witnessed him get beaten right in front of my eyes.  At that time, I was so afraid, I didn’t know what to do.  I just ran back to my house, into my bedroom and I just sat on my bed, listening to the terrible noises of the German attack on the Jews.  Right now, I am regretting not helping Abram when he was taking blows by the German soldiers.  I should have done something, anything that could help the Jews that lived near me in the riot.  Well, today I have to help clean up the streets of Germany so there isn’t any more glass remaining (German orders), so I guess that’s it for this journal entry.