But even if soldiers were present, their orders usually were not to use firearms against the mobs. That, and the relatively lenient punishment of the rioters, signalled to incendiaries in other towns that the authorities were winking at the violence against the Jews even when that was untrue. Sometimes, too, Jews on the receiving end noted a kind of chilly indifference on the part of the authorities amounting to grim satisfaction. The general attitude was that the Jews had brought it on themselves by their cupidity and greed.
