Kristallnacht

"He was there, the night of Kristallnacht. He was a student, living in the residence, you'd call it a dormitory here. He had never been an observant Jew, his family, they weren't... They were ethnic Jews I guess, cultural Jews, but not observant. He never thought much about it till the signs started going up, and after he came to America, he stopped thinking about it again. But this started happening, this terrible violence that they later named Kristallnacht. The school announced all the Jewish students had to leave immediately. They didn't want them staying there because they were afraid the Nazis would come for the school, would say they were harboring Jews. So they said all Jewish students had to leave, immediately. It was after dark, winter, and the violence had already started. He could hear windows breaking. His only transportation was a bicycle, and he never rode it at night, so he didn't have a light for it. It was against the law to ride a bicycle at night without a light on it, and he had to get away from the residence as fast as possible. If he didn't have a light, the Nazis would arrest him and that would be the end of it. He knew that. So he stole a light. He stole a light from a non-Jew's bicycle. It was the first time he ever stole anything. And it was that, that being forced to steal something, that made him cry. He rode that bicycle into the dark, crying from fear and frustration and shame."