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An issue of this newspaper from February 23, 1881. Listed under "Miscellaneous items" on page 2 is mention of a fire at the synagogue in Neustettin. At 11a.m. on Friday 18 February 1881 the people of Neustettin, a small town in rural Pomerania, were at first startled and then horrified to hear the shout of 'Fire! Fire!' followed by 'the Jewish temple is burning'. Those at home - it was a normal working day and not a public holiday - rushed out of their houses and saw a huge pillar of fire shooting into the sky whilst black clouds of smoke quickly covered the surrounding streets. The powerful blaze tore through the building and despite every effort to put out the fire, the flames soon engulfed and destroyed the rather large synagogue, which had been consecrated in September 1829, leaving only the foundations. The Jewish community in Neustettin immediately announced a reward of 1,000 marks for any information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators, and this was followed by another reward of 2,000 marks by a group of Christian citizens in nearby Ratzebuhr.
On the 22 February the Public Prosecutor announced that 'in order to serve the state, all confessions and all political parties must get together and forget their political and religious hatred'. He urged all citizens to help the authorities in their investigation, and to submit any evidence to the police without delay. (AZJ, 8 March 1881). Sadly, reason did not prevail over prejudice. The destruction of the synagogue cast a long shadow over future German-Jewish relations in this part of imperial Germany; distrust, fear and suspicion remained during periods of intermittent violence, prompting many Jewish families to leave the area during the following ten years. The Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums (AZJ), the leading Jewish newspaper of imperial Germany, was from the outset highly critical of the authorities' response to this shocking event and their subsequent efforts to identify it cause: 'Everyone knows who the intellectual perpetrators are, anyone can point them out ... and everyone will want to know why such a crime was committed in Germany' (AZJ, 1 March 1991).
Another article on the third page of the newspaper is titled The Jewish userers - the misfortune of the German peoples. |
