Diary. 1939

In 1936, Germany reacquired control of the Rhineland, the first of several expansionist moves to establish Greater Germany. Jewish writers were not allowed to carry out any form of literacy work in Germany, the Jewish were only allowed to sit on benches marked as "For Jews." Jewish musicians were not allowed to work in state orchestras also Jewish art and antique dealers were not allowed to carry out their trade. In September the Nuremberg laws were: all Jews had their German citizenship removed. Marriage ceremonies and extramarital sex, between Germans and Jews were punishable by imprisonment and marriages that had already taken place were declared invalid. Between 1932 and 1936 an average of 9 Jews were admitted; non-Jews numbered around 40, and in the next seven years the average number of Jews decreased to 5; non-Jews increased to around 49. Fear of reprisal contributed to the secrecy of the quota system. Aside from the institutionalized anti-Semitism, there existed a significant number of random racist attacks against the Jewish race. For example, in 1936 a Mathematics teacher at St. John, the largest high school in Manitoba, made public racial slurs about Jews. A few years earlier a teacher was called a dirty Jewish substitute by the principal of Pinkham School. When she enquired about her removal from staff, she was told it was because she did not wear a hairnet.

Diary 4

1939.

By early 1939, only about 16 percent of Jewish breadwinners had steady employment of any kind. Thousands of Jews remained interned in concentration camps following the mass arrests in the aftermath of kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass) in November 1938.

About Kristallnacht..

In Germany on the night of November 9-10 mobs beat, raped, arrested and murdered Jews. the mobs also ransacked Jewish-owned stores and burned down synagogue. Fire-fighters and other government officials stood by and watched destruction, only helping if non-Jewish businesses or homes were threatened. The brutality of the night has caused many to consider this the beginning of the Holocaust..

The Nazis coordinated an attack on Jewish people and their property in Germany and German-controlled lands as a part of Hitler's anti-Semitic policy. The consequences of this violence were disastrous for the Jews of the Third Reich. In a single night, Kristallnacht saw the destruction of more than 1,000 Synagogues, and the ransacking of tens of thousands of Jewish businesses and homes. It marked the beginning of the systematic eradication of a people in Germany who could trace their ancestry to Roman times, and served as a prelude to the Holocaust that was to follow.

- Emigrants were not allowed to take jewellery and valuables with them.

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