The mob was let loose. Not only was the police ordered to step aside—while being made the nodal agency of the massacre—in cases where Jewish-owned stores were to be burned down, they were to take owners into ‘protective custody’ so that the arson could be carried out properly. The fire services were ordered to ignore the burning houses belonging to Jews and to douse the houses next door to them with water so that property belonging to people of Aryan origins could be preserved.
