2. The House Sitter. During the evening of Nov. 9, we watched from our hotel window as fire destroyed the synagogue across the street, one of 267 synagogues torched that night. With cooperation from the local population, Nazis smashed windows, vandalized storefronts and murdered 91 men. My uncle was one of them. The Nazis also arrested 30,000 Jewish men between the ages of 16 and 60 and sent them to concentration camps. Back at our home in Gotha, the Gestapo came to arrest my father, but a young Jewish woman who was housesitting told them she did not know where he was and they left in disgust. The denial was part of a prearranged plan to call him if anything went wrong. The next evening, we received a telephone call at the hotel. “The English lesson is canceled," she said. It was code meaning, “Do not come home,” and he never did again.