At the end of October 1938, on the orders of SS leader Heinrich Himmler and in coordination with the Foreign Office, some 18,000 Jews living in the German Reich, who had immigrated from Poland, were arrested and expelled from Germany to Poland. The deportation was violent and came as a complete surprise to those affected. The 43 Jews of Polish nationality, who were still living in Cottbus at the time, were also deported on 28 October 1938. The so-called "Poland Action" was a first climax of the persecution of Jews in Germany and the prelude to the extermination of the Jews in Europe.
Max Schindler, who was nine years old at the time, and his family were among the Polish families who were deported from Germany on 28 October 1938. Albert Gompertz also remembered that day. He witnessed the "Poland Action" in Cottbus.
Albert Gompertz was born in Gelsenkirchen in 1921 as the eldest son of a Jewish fur trader. Even before he had to leave school in 1936, he already felt the anti-Semitism of his classmates and teachers. In 1938 Albert Gompertz began his training at a textile college in Cottbus. There he witnessed the "Crystal Night" and was briefly imprisoned. In Gelsenkirchen his father‘s store was looted and destroyed. In 1939 Albert Gompertz and his family managed to leave for Holland. From there, they emigrated to the United States. Albert Gompertz served in the U.S. Army and returned to Germany as a soldier in 1945. After his release from the army, he entered his father's fur business. The interview with Albert Gompertz was recorded in Palm Beach (Florida) in 1998.