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At
7a.m. on November 10, 1938, a policeman appeared at the home of Artur
Flehinger, a former teacher in the gymnasia of Baden-Baden, and ordered Flehinger to accompany him to the police station.
The streets were empty that morning, except for other Jews who also
had been told to report early to the police station. When
Flehinger arrived at the station, there were 50 Jewish men there who
had been rounded up by the SS. The arrest of these local Jewish men
signaled the beginning of Kristallnacht in
Baden-Baden. In total 80
Jewish men were arrested that morning. The SS ordered them to go
outside to the courtyard and line up in rows. Towards noon,
accompanied by the SS and police, the Jews were marched in long lines
through the streets of the city towards the local synagogue.
Hundreds of residents of Baden-Baden lined the streets and
hurled antisemitic epithets at the Jewish prisoners. On the steps of
the synagogue, many more Germans awaited to join in the verbal abuse.
The Jews were forced to enter the synagogue, to remove their hats and
to listen to antisemitic lectures from the SS. Afterwords, Artur
Felhinger was told to come up to the podium and to read sections from
“Mein Kampf.” The SS were not satisfied with his recitation and
beat him. A similar fate awaited all those called up to the podium to
read. The Jews were then forced to sing the Nazi anthem “Horst
Wessel” over and over again until the Nazis were satisfied. After
abusing them for many long hours, the Jews (except for the old and
feeble) were loaded onto trucks and taken to Dachau. As soon as they
were deported, the mob set fire to the synagogue. They tried to throw
the synagogue’s cantor into the flames, but he was saved by a
fireman. The stores and homes of the Jews in Baden-Baden were
pillaged; the stone remains of the synagogue were used to pave a road,
and a city park was erected where the synagogue once stood.
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