Anti-jewish Demonstrations in Berlin

Anti-Jewish demonstrations occurred today before the offices of the french tourist Bureau here, on the Unter den Linden, as result of the shooting of Ernst von Rath, Reich Embassy official in Paris. The demonstrations were ended by the Gestapo after Marcel Besnard, director of the tourist bureau, had asked police aid and then gone directly to the french embassy.

The Embassy intervened at the Reich Foreign Office and a little later Gestapo officials called upon Besnard to express their regrets. It was stressed that the demonstrations were in no way anti-French in character but were directed only against Jews. Groups circulated before the building shouting “Down With Jews!” when they saw some people leaving the bureau they took for Jews trying to escape to France.

When news of von Rath’s death reached here tonight official circles refused to comment immediately. There was no attempt, however, to conceal the fact that it will have serious consequences on Jews in the Reich.

All radio stations in Germany observed two minutes silence in von Rath’s memory at 6.35 p.m. Chancellor Adolf Hitler immediately dispatched the following telegram to von Rath’s parents: “Please accept my most sincere condolences for the heavy loss which you have just suffered following the cowardly assassination of which your son was the victim.”

At Dessau, according to the German News Agency (D.N.B.), spontaneous demonstrations occurred against the Jews when von Rath’s death became known. Police had to intervene to protect the Jews, the report said.

A synagogue at Hersfeld, Prussia, was destroyed by fire set by Nazis as an act of reprisal for the shooting.

Police arrested a Protestant pastor who had allegedly exhorted his congregation to donate funds for relief of German Jews. The arrest occurred while the pastor was himself taking up a collection. His chauffeur also was seized.