Learn about the hundreds of anti-Jewish laws and measures passed in Germany during the first three years of World War II.
Edith Reiss, from Bolton, England, describes witnessing antisemitic violence on the streets of Göttingen, Germany, when she was a visitor there in 1939.
It must have been August 26, 27, something like that, of 1939. And I had taken pictures during my holiday in the Harz Mountains, and I had left them at a photographer's in the town of Göttingen.
I went to pick up the pictures. And there were several other people in the store. I had to wait. And as I was waiting, I heard a commotion outside the shop.
And then I picked up my pictures and came out of the shop. And there, I saw a man in the Brownshirt uniform, kicking an old man, and he was kicking him off the pavement into the gutter. And now there was a crowd of about maybe 12 people all standing around, looking. As I came out of the shop, I was horrified to see what was happening.
The Brownshirt walked away. The man was left in the gutter. And I immediately rushed to pick him up. And as I picked him up, I saw he had a patch on his coat that had the Jewish symbol Juden, J-U-D-E-N, which meant Jew. I picked him up, and as I did so, a person that was standing there touched my elbow and said, don't get involved.
So I said, why not? Why can't you help this man? And they used two words, "concentration camp." So I helped the man along the street, and then he turned to me. He said, I will be all right.