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O God! What is it about us that they hate us so much? Jews have lived in Wildeshausen for over 200 years. You'd think people would get used to it! Especially since we don't even stand out in any way! We live like them, we speak like them and we basically think like them. We also love our home and just want to live here in peace. But the peace is over. I don't want to talk about the times when Abraham Heinemann was a councilman and Jews were accepted into the Shooters Guild. Even before January 1933, and what the Nazis call the "Machtergreifung“ - the seizure of power, it was sometimes better not to go out on the streets sometimes. The right-wing nationalist Stahlhelm was already strong in Wildeshausen in the 1920s, but since the great economic crisis people have increasingly voted for the Nazis because they believed their slogans that only they could still bring salvation. First a bellowing Nazi became prime minister of the state of Oldenburg, then Hitler was appointed chancellor. As soon as he was in power, the anti-Jewish laws began. In April 33 the SA organized a boycott of Jewish shops, also here in Wildeshausen; I remember that like it was yesterday! A little later, when signs with the inscription “Jews unwanted!” hung in the city’s shop windows, a chill ran down my spine. The shopkeepers used to be people who always said hello in such a friendly way! After some time, the de Haas family, who had been living in Wildeshausen for a really long time, were pushed out of their business. Julius Goldstein also gave up his business and went to America with his family. Of the 20 Wildeshausen Jews that used to be there, only half are left. Just a few weeks ago we decided to give up our synagogue and to sell the building. 11 days ago we celebrated our last service. That was really sad. The Wildeshausen synagogue in Huntestr. has been around for over 100 years. 100 years of praying, learning, living together...all of that is over now. But that still isn’t enough for them! Although that building is no longer a synagogue, they still want to desecrate it! Today at noon SA people and the fire brigade are in front of the Huntestr. 30, threw out the new tenants, a purely “Aryan” family, as they would call it, and then set the house, which now belongs to master baker Johann Meyer, on fire. I heard they couldn't even get that right! A tractor that happened to be passing by had to help tear down the gable! Since then, this rabble of SA rags has been roaming the city without anyone stopping them. I'm afraid they'll come to our door... What's going to happen then?... I'm so scared...