The Adolphstrasse with the Adolph Klaus. The Klaus was a small modest synagogue, in which ardent, partly mumbled prayers resounded as well as loud and merry songs; from within its walls emanated a babble of voices praying according to Eastern-European Jewish rite. Once on Simchat Torah, the festival of rejoicing with the Torah, when everyone was dancing and singing, the veil over the Holy Ark caught fire from a candle that was planted in a sweet apple on a child’s flag. In a flash the flames spread and burnt the joy, the singing and the prayer. The scorched celebration was a blazing, ominous sign of what was to come.