The Bavarian police today published a report on their investigation of the desecration last Monday night of the only synagogue in the Bavarian town of Marktredwitz.
The police, who arrested a “denazified” German, Hans Rief, for the crime, revealed that Rief had hired a group of “workmen” to help him demolish the synagogue. The “workmen” forced the synagogue gate and then desecrated the Holy Ark and a number of religious articles before they halted their activities.
The police report states that the Jews appealed to the town’s mayor, Otto Hirschmann, and the local police chief, Albert Stimmer, to halt further desecration of the synagogue. Mayor Hirschmann refused to intervene, but later promised the city’s help to repair the damage. The Mayor is a former Nazi who joined the party in 1936, while the arrested criminal traces his membership in Hitler’s movement back to 1933.
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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.
