Re-elected on Sunday by an absolute majority of the electors as President of the German Republic, Field Marshal von Hindenburg has to-day made use of the emergency powers given to the President in the Constitution, by issuing a decree declaring the Hitlerist storm troops illegal and ordering the authorities to suppress them immediately.
All over the country the police have in accordance with the decree closed and sealed all Hitlerist storm troop barracks and all other buildings in which the storm troops carried on activities.
One paragraph in the text of the decree explaining the suppression of the Hitlerist storm troops by saying that their existence was a constant source of anxiety to certain peaceful sections of the population, has reference, the J.T.A. is given to understand, to the attacks on Jews made at various times by the storm troops, notably last Rosh Hashanah in the Kurfuerstendamm district in Berlin, and the danger of such at tacks being repeated if the Hitlerist storm troops were allowed to continue their activities.
It is stated in this connection to-day that Count Helldorf, the leader of the Berlin Hitlerist storm troops who was put on trial on the charge of having directed the anti-Jewish excesses in the Kurfuerstendamm, and other Hitlerist storm troop leaders, whose homes were visited by the police as part of the move for the suppression of the storm troops, have disappeared.
Inscriptions reading – “We fight Jewish corruption and we are against the Jews”, and “Bruening and Severing, your soft heads will be rolled in the dung”, have been found on the walls of the Hitlerist storm troop barracks by the police.
The Prussian Prime Minister, Herr Otto Braun, speaking on Monday at a meeting held in Berlin in connection with the Prussian Parliamentary election campaign, foreshadowed the suppression of the Hitlerist storm troops, declaring in the course of his speech that “the Republic in conjunction with Prussia must see to it that Hitler’s private army should disappear as soon as possible, for a people that is fighting against itself cannot have the confidence of foreign opinion, which is essential, politically and economically. The material
concerning the activities of the storm troops seized by the police leave us in no doubt about the treasonable character of the organisation. In the interests of the security of the State, I cannot, however, say anything more on this subject at present.
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.
