Heinz Spanknoebel, the Nazi organizer who disappeared mysteriously last October, was kidnaped by an agent of the German Ministry of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment, it was charged Friday by Frederick Karl Kruppa, a former Friends of New Germany leader.
Interviewed by a Jewish Daily Bulletin reporter in the lobby of the Bar Association Building where he was waiting to make this allegation before Representative Samuel Dickstein in an executive session of the Congressional committee investigating Nazi and other un-American activities in the United States, Kruppa exhibited documents proving, he said, a connection between the Friends and the Nazi Party of Germany.
He was sworn in and told to return Monday to tell his story.
ALLEGED PELLEY LINK
He declared that he could demonstrate to the committee’s satisfaction that there is also a link between the Friends and the Silver Shirts of William Dudley Pelley. Further, Kruppa promised to reveal that Gestapo, the Reich’s secret state police, is active in this country.
When he joined the Friends, Kruppa said, he was obliged to pledge that he would shoot anybody he was ordered to by his superiors.
In regard to the missing Spanknoebel, Kruppa told the reporter that one night last year he was having dinner in the home of Dr. I. T. Griebl when Dr. Hellmuth von Feldman, who Kruppa described as an agent of the Goebbels ministry, walked in with a pistol and ordered Spanknoebel, who was also present, to return to Germany with him.
Kruppa said that the Department of Justice had issued a warrant for Spanknoebel’s arrest that day.
NAMES WITNESSES
According to Kruppa, the following were witnesses to the occurrence:
Pat McGrady, a former member of the Jewish Daily Bulletin editorial staff; a Mr. Seiler of the New York Post; a Miss Deutsch, a nurse in the employ of Dr. Griebl; a Mr. Lund of the Gesapo, and a Mr. Trawniz.
Kruppa said he would ask Representative Dickstein to subpoena these persons.
Kruppa produced a document, an official bulletin of the Friends to members, which, in translation, read as follows:
“Resignation:
“During the last few months many members have returned to Germany without notifying our office. We call your attention to the fact that every member must arrange with this office if he wishes to join a Nazi organization in Germany upon his arrival there.
“In order to keep registration centralized, all members should give us their addresses.
“Concerning former members of N. S. D. P. (National Socialist Party of Germany), since the treasurer must give general statements of all Nazi members, we will request all former N. S. D. P. members to pay their dues, otherwise they will be in danger of being excluded by the German office.”
OTHER CHARGES
Other charges which Kruppa was prepared to voice, he said, were:
That money sent to this country by the German Propaganda Ministry was misappropriated by the Friends.
That the Deutsche Zeitung, Nazi newspaper here, was founded with these misappropriated funds.
That records of Uschla, Nazi secret committee in the United States, under date of January 23, 1934, prove these charges.
That the Friends hired an agent of the Nazis “to give me the works.”
Edgar Stang, a twelve-year-old camper at the Nazi youth colony in Griggstown, N. J., testified that the campers were not required to give the Hitler salute, but that he saw grown-ups doing it, so he did it, too.
Others who were to spread their testimony on the record of the Congressional investigation today were:
Detlof Sahm, son of the mayor of Berlin and a student at Columbia University; Hugo Haas, leader of the Griggstown camp; Gregory Lochner and Killian Schneider, leaders of the Nazi youth movement in the United States, and K. G. W. Ludecke, alleged Nazi propagandist.
Kruppa said efforts by the Nazis to prove him insane grow out of the fact that a non-citizen who is insane is subject to deportation. If deported to the Reich, Kruppa said, he will be shot.
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.
