Synagogue Celle In the circle

Pogromnacht 10.11.1938

On November 10, 1938, at about two o'clock in the morning, the order of the chief of the security police and the SD, Heydrich, to attack the Jewish population arrived at the office of the Celle SA-Standarte 77. The leader of the SA-Standarte, SA-Obersturmbannführer Martensen, then alerted all available members of the SA in Celle. The SA was ordered to assemble in civilian clothes at 3:00 a.m. at the assembly point at Kleiner Plan/Firehouse near the synagogue. At the same time, Obersturmbannführer Martensen instructed the lawyer Kurt Blanke (note: later CDU mayor of Celle) by telephone to come to the SA's office in his car in order to bring torches and gasoline to the assembly point. Already at about 2:30 a.m., the fire department's equipment manager was awakened by knocks from some SA employees, who were also members of the fire department. The persons demanded the handing over of Äxts and hatchets. The fireman did not want to hand them over without further ado and called the head of the city fire department, Gustav Krohne, who was also the NSDAP local group leader of the old town of Celle. This instructed the Gerätewart to öffnen the gates, so that the people could serve themselves nevertheless.

From these facts the goals of the action already become clear, one wanted to set the synagogue on fire and destroyed the buisness houses of jewish owners. About 100 SA members were already waiting at the assembly point to commit the deeds. It is not clear to what extent other Nazi organizations were also involved in the riots. However, the SA was the driving force behind the pogroms in Celle

From: https://pogrome1938-niedersachsen.de/celle/