(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
The trial of Julius and Henry Barmat, charged with complicity in the Prussian State Bank scandal, began here yesterday.
Nine others are accused of having been implicated in the Barmat operations. They include a former member of the Reichstag, a customs official and an ex-police officer.
Julius Barmat told the court his life story at the opening of the trial. He was born in Piotrkow, Poland, in a rabbinic family. His parents wanted him to study for the rabbinate, but he determined on a commercial career. He emigrated to Holland where he met with rapid success in business. At the outbreak of the war he settled in Germany, bringing with him a capital of one million gulden. The money which he took with him to Germany had been earned in legitimate operations, he declared. Barmat stated that he came to Germany at the invitation of former minister Rosenberg and Professor Brinkmann.
In Germany, he engaged in the business of importing food supplies, for which he received payment in the deflated German currency. In 1923 he established a children’s home with a sum of three million gulden.
The trial of the Barmat brothers is being exploited by the nationalist press for anti-Semitic propaganda. The Berlin “Vorwaerts”, German socialist paper, reveals today that the Right press received instructions to use the trial to incite anti-Semitic feeling.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
