“at Own Risk” Warning Cancels Synagogue Services in Reich; Jewish Groups to Be Merged

No Jewish religious services have been held in Berlin and possibly the rest of Germany since Nov. 10, when an estimated 520 synagogues were either partially or totally destroyed in the “reprisal” pogroms for the killing of a German Embassy official in Paris, it was learned today.

The police informed Berlin rabbis that “the Jews may hold religious services at their own risk; we are not in a position to protect them.” Although three of Berlin’s 12 synagogues escaped the torch, no services have been held here the past four weeks. A similar situation is believed to obtain throughout the Reich. Permission for the holding of services in Munich last week was withdrawn at the last moment.

A plan for the merging of all Jewish organizations in the old Reich into a single all-embracing body to function exclusively for emigration and welfare will be formally approved by the Nazi authorities within a few days, it was learned today. Under the plan, the Reichsverband der Juden in Deutschland will become German Jewry’s sole representative body, with a membership of almost all the Jews in the old Reich. Jewish community organizations and municipal branches will be merged with the Reichsverband, while other organizations will be dissolved and their functions taken over by the central body.

Among the bodies disappearing as individual units will be the Hilfsverein, the Centralverein, the Jewish Women’s Union and the Union of Jewish ex-Servicemen. The Palestine Office, which handles emigration to Palestine, will be incorporated in the enlarged Reichsverband but will retain some measure of autonomy. The plan envisages incorporation of all philanthropic foundations and welfare institutions, thus removing completely all initiative in Jewish communal life. It is understood that the education and training of emigrants is considered by the Nazis to be in line with these major policies.