in the morning issue of Leslauer Bote that ‘all hostages are to be tried before
a court-martial.’ Obviously, that caused sheer panic in town. (Luckily, we
were unaware of that because we did not read the newspaper, and that spared
us unnecessary anxiety.) A delegation of women was immediately elected
(men were afraid to leave home) and they went to Cramer to ask for [23]
the ordinance to be revoked. He received that delegation worse than usual.
Even though all the delegates knew the German language, Cramer told the
interpreter to say that “the Jews set the synagogue ablaze to shift the blame
onto the Germans and they have to be adequately punished for such a provocation.” He then sent the women away empty-handed. The last chance failed.
All the other interventions proved ineffective after almighty Cramer’s refusal,
so the whole town was trying to accept the thought that we would be executed.
In the meantime, we continued our work, unaware of the looming danger.
In the afternoon the telephone line was finally repaired and the soldiers
who ‘were looking after’ us reported that fact to their superiors. At the same
time they asked if they could release us, as they had nothing else for us to do.
They received an affirmative answer and they shared that joyful news with us.
As we were returning in high spirits to the prison, we saw our families
standing in front of us, as always, with horribly grave expressions. They came
to see us for one last time and bid their farewell. They thought that they would
not see us again. We joyfully announce that we are to be released, but they
do not believe us. Depressed, they shake their heads, unwilling to tell us the
whole truth so as not to frighten us. Therefore, somebody calls the soldiers as
witnesses. The men confirm our words. One of them asks with an expression
of a manager of a smart hotel, “Would you like to spend another night here or
should I escort you home in a while?” Naturally, we choose the latter option.
And a miracle [24] in the eyes of our relatives takes place: the Germans hang
their rifles on their shoulders and say, Also, wir gehen!¹⁰³⁸
This is how my performance as a ‘synagogue arsonist’ came to an end.
[Re] 2. “Levies.”¹⁰³⁹ The hostages were to guarantee two things:
1) that there would be no act of arson in the town (according to Cramer’s
announcement) and
2) that the levies would be paid.
1038 (German) We are going then.
1039 The levies were also described in Docs. 77, 78 and 79.
