DEATH OF A GERMAN SEAMAN
25
When he returned a few minutes later with a young newly-ordained
Nazi cop, Hans had already disappeared into the night.
6.
St. Bartholomew's Night-
I shall never forget that night. Beyond the windows, like the stamp-
ing of horses' hoofs, resounded the marching steps of nailed boots. They
disturbed the tranquility of peaceful Hamburg.
Towards midnight the
stamping grew louder. The Bahnhoff clock struck twelve. Suddenly wild
shrieks of hurrahs pierced the quiet night.
SchnazeI had a fit. I ran up-
stairs for water. When I returned he had already regained consciousness.
He blue lips were whispering:
St. Barthlomew's night." The stamping
grew louder and louder.
Now we could distinguish shrieks of despair.
Cries of "Heil Hitler" intermingled with the crash of breaking glass ...•
7.
The Death of Hans-
In the morning devastation stared us in the face.
Obennan's
bakery, where only the previous night I bought bread, was completely des-
troyed. Pieces of a smashed door were scattered about the sidewalk. The
windows were broken.
Here and there one could see pale faces peeping
through windows.
Otherwise the streets were completely deserted.
I made my way to
Monckenbergstrasse,
the main street in Ham-
burg. Here it was much livelier.
Groups of stormtroopers were closing
Jewish stores.
A young farm-boy with pink cheeks, dressed in a brown
uniform, was leading a Jew by a rope. A sign, inscribed in red letters:
"I am a Jew and a traitor," was suspended by two strings from the
Jew's neck.
Among the throng watching the Jew and the Nazi, I found Slim.
Together we wandered through the streets of Hamburg.
We passed the
deserted Rathhause,
the Nazi headquarters-the
Brown House-filled
with armed stonntroopers,
and made our way to Altona.
In front of the huge statue of Bismarck, towering majestically over
St. Pauli
and
A
!tOM,
we were met by a group of anned civilians. They
were shabbily dressed people.
The majority of them wore sailor's dun-
garees. Their faces were grim and detennined.
We cut across
Mittie strasse
and in front of Chassal's drygoods store
we bumped into Hans.
"Look who is here," said Slim, "and holdin' a toy pistol in his hand,
too. What's the matter, Shorty, goin' huntin'?"
Hans did not reply.
