Apparently emulating the tactics employed in Vienna’s anti-Semitic reign of terror, police here this morning carried out a wholesale round-up of Jews. An undetermined number, estimated at several hundreds, were taken into custody in their homes or places of business between six and eight o’clock and transported immediately to Alexanderplatz police headquarters.
The arrests were carried out quietly and were not reported by the Berlin press. In some cases where the families did not know what had happened, the prisoners were permitted to telephone their homes from police headquarters.
There is reason to believe the arrests were not altogether arbitrary and indiscriminate. According to informed quarters, the names of the majority of the arrested were brought to the attention of the police either regarding minor offenses, such as traffic violations, or merely as witnesses in some criminal process.
The victims, who were picked up in many quarters of the city, include business men and professionals, as well as minor employees whose insignificant personal fortunes could not be of interest to the Gestapo or to the national economy. There is no evidence to show that the majority was ever involved in political activities.
The Gestapo’s renewed interest in the Jews, coinciding with the Vienna mass arrests plunged German Jewry into a state bordering on panic.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
