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The
following account of the sad outrages recently perpetrated on Jews in
Gesecke, a town in Westphalia, is taken from the “Allgemeine
Preussische Zeitung,” under date of May 12:—
“Most
deplorable excesses have been committed here (Gesecke) on the evening of
the 9th instant, which are the more lamentable on account of
their being caused by religious fanaticism. They must be indirectly
attributed to the conversion of a Jewish lad to the Roman Catholic
religion last year. Most of the Jewish children in this place, after
having received elementary instruction from their own teacher, have been
in the habit of attending the public grammar-school, the teacher at
which is a Roman Catholic priest; they have even occasionally attended
the religious instruction in this school. This is not the place for
inquiring into the means by which the above-mentioned young Israelite
was induced to change his religion; it is sufficient to state that in
the course of last summer he was baptized, in direct opposition to the
will of his parents. Shortly afterwards he attended, it is said at the
expense of some ecclesiastic, the Gymnasium at Paderborn; but being
claimed by his father, he was brought home about three weeks ago, from
whence he was, however, again sent away by his parent, after a few days,
without any one knowing whither he had gone. This circumstance gave rise
to the most senseless and contradictory reports. The excitement thus
caused in the neighbourhood was increased by the former teacher of the
young proselyte receiving a few days ago, an anonymous letter, which had
been posted at Paderborn, and contained low and foolish invectives, not
only against the priest himself but also against the Christian religion.
Instead of ignoring. and destroying this letter, the priest was
incautious enough to suffer its contents to be known, which inflamed to
redoubled fury, the minds of the lower classes, already excited by what
had taken place. Without any sufficient reason every one pointed to the
Jews as the authors of that letter. On the evening of May 8th,
the windows in the houses of two Israelites were broken by the populace.
But on the 9th, the contents of the letter having become more
generally known, it was
easy to perceive, in the general appearance of the place, indications of
approaching serious disturbances. Before dusk the streets usually so
quiet and deserted, were filled with people, and the expression,
“Hepp, Hepp,” (which has so often been the watchword and signal for
acts of violence perpetrated on the Jews by mobs in different parts of
Germany), was frequently heard among the children who congregated before
the houses of the Jews. At the ringing of the vesper-bell, the attack on
the house of the father of the young proselyte commenced with the
breaking of windows and shutters. The mob, not satisfied with one
sacrifice to their fury, extended their zeal also to attacking the rest
of the Jewish inhabitants. Doors and shutters were demolished with
hatchets, windows broken, furniture and stock of goods destroyed, beds
cut open and scattered about. The cries of lamentation for the oppressed
Israelites, who, no longer secure of their lives, had sought refuge on
the roofs of their houses, were heard above the wild cries of exultation
which proceeded from the mob. Stones weighing twenty pounds were the
next morning found in the rooms of many of the Jewish houses. Not until
the work of destruction was nearly over, did two magistrates make their
appearance, on which the mob immediately dispersed.
“Stirred
up by the proceedings at Gesecke, a mob led on by a drummer, demolished
the houses inhabited by Jews in the village of Stormede, half an lour
distant, in the night, from the 10th to the 11th
day, and not satisfied with this, they broke to pieces the whole stock
in trade of a Jewish ironmonger, and destroyed the manufactured goods
belonging to a Jewish merchant.”
In
addition to the above we learn from the Voice of Jacob, that “the
judicial investigation ordered to be made by the Westphalian authorities
into the recent outrages upon the Jews in this place, has re-awakened
the hostility of the people against them. Some of the rioters are
already in custody, and reports implicate persons in a still higher
station. In consequence of this, every effort is made to harrass and
intimidate the Jews, so as to terrify them into a suppression of the
charge. A letter in the Cologne paper states that during that week,
stones had been thrown after the father of the baptized boy, and almost
every night some damage or other had been done to the gardens of the
Jews, so that the fruit harvest will scarcely produce any thing. The
police replied to the appeals for their protection, that nothing more
could be done for the security of the Jews’ property, although in a
small place like Gesecke, a very little energy on the part of the
magistrate would suffice for the purpose.” |
