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Newark Fire Leads Police to Nazi Nest, One Held As Suspect

December 24, 1933
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Federal secret service men were expected here today to investigate the case of Oscar Schilling, who is being held by the police for questioning after a fire in premises at 34 Gillette Place, occupied by Schilling and his brother Frank, had revealed a mass of Nazi propaganda.

The Federal agents will question Schilling on his alleged connections with the huge spy-ring just uncovered in Paris, France, and about his connections with Heinz Spanknoebel, Nazi leader who fled after a New York Federal Grand Jury indicted him.

Besides a mass of Nazi propaganda, police also found prints and negatives of many bridges in the vicinity. They also found a secret and very intricate code that ended with the initials P. L. and an address in Hamburg, Germany.

Included in the literature found by police were hundreds of Nazi pamphlets issued by the Friends of New Germany, a mailing list said to belong to the Friends of New Germany, and hundreds of petitions aimed against the boycott of German-made goods. The petitions, which called the boycott unconstitutional, ended with a plea for the reader to sign his name and address and send the petition to “headquarters in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.”

Police also confiscated nine cameras and a large number of undeveloped negatives. The rooms in which Schilling and his brother were found contained a number of typewriters, filing cabinets, and a dark room completely equipped with photographic development apparatus.

Schilling, who is 28 years old, declared that he came to the United States in 1928. When asked about the source of his income, Schilling refused to answer.

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