Kristallnacht in Words and Photographs
Wilhelm Steiner
Steiner, on the right in the photograph above (alongside his brother Eugene and cousin Egon Fiala) turned 18 in 1938.
"The day after Kristallnacht, a provisional administrator for the store arrived. This provisional administrator was Viennese and a thief. This administrator took all the money he could find; he simply put everything into his own pocket. This triggered a discussion and I protested loudly, after all I couldn't assess what was really going on. I told him, 'You're a pig. You're stealing everything here, how can you know what will happen in two years' time? How do you know? And who knows, things may change.' Whereupon this provisional administrator, this thief, locked the store from the inside and called the police. He claimed that I had insulted the 'Führer.' Viennese policemen arrived, arrested me and took me to the police station."