Eva Israel

10 november 1938, Duisburg, Germany

Early one morning while Eva is having breakfast, there is a knock at the door. Uniformed men stomp into the kitchen. Eva is not even three years old, but she understands that she must stand completely still. The men rip the cloth from the table, sending dishes and food crashing to the floor. As they march out, their high, shiny boots are exactly at Eva’s eye level.

EVA ISRAEL LIVED IN THE CITY OF DUISBURG in western Germany with her parents and older brother. Her father Gottfried was a teacher in the Jewish elementary school and the cantor at the local synagogue.

The SS officers were looking for Eva’s father. But he had been warned of the impending raid earlier in the night and hid at a friend’s house. The SS officers had already arrested the rabbi and set fire to the synagogue. The men ransacked and destroyed the family’s home. Lined up against the kitchen wall, Eva, her mother and older brother could do nothing but hold hands and watch.

A few days later, Gottfried returned home. The immediate danger had passed. But Eva’s parents did not dare to remain in Nazi Germany any longer. They were waiting for an entry permit to the United States, but decided to try to flee elsewhere in the meantime.

The November pogrom

The November pogrom took place during one week in November 1938. Nazis looted and destroyed Jewish homes and shops all over Nazi Germany. The violence was at its worst on the night between 9 and 10 of November.

More than 1,400 synagogues were burnt down. The police and Nazis imprisoned 30,000 Jewish men and took them to concentration camps. About 1,500 Jews were murdered or committed suicide. The Nazi leadership was behind the November pogrom. But many Jewish families and business owners found that their neighbours and former customers took part in the persecution and destruction.

The word pogrom means violent persecution of Jews. It began to be used in Russia in the 1800s.

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