It took the mounting tension of the Sudeten crisis to overcome their inhibitions. As the expectation of war built to a climax in September 1938, so did the climate of violence against the Jews. The municipal authorities of Munich and Nuremberg set an important precedent with the demolition of their synagogues over the summer. This was followed by a rash of anti-Semitic attacks and demonstrations across south and south-western Germany, which according to the SD took on ‘in part the character of pogroms’.124 In Vienna, the hostility was unrelenting. By the autumn, entire Jewish neighbourhoods
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