Albert of Aachen vividly described the nature of the massacre, with thousands of crusaders descending upon the hall in Ruthard's palace in which the Jews were sheltering, “breaking the bolts and doors” and proceeding to indiscriminately massacre any Jew they found, regardless of age or sex. Using swords, arrows, and lances, the mob killed approximately 1,100 Jews in a systematic way over the next two days, leaving only a few survivors who either managed to escape the massacre or agreed under duress to convert to Christianity. The Jewish historian Solomon Bar-Simson provides similar descriptions of the violence. Both chroniclers also note the prevalence of mass suicide by the besieged Jews, who preferred to take their own lives rather than be killed or forcibly converted by the crusaders.