New Yorkers were speculating Friday over the identity of a renegade local Jewish physician who allowed a “German patriotic society” to pay the expense of his return to his native Saar so that he might vote in favor of handing the area over to the Reich.
Reporters who met the Europa, which arrived here with the first of the American citizens who took advantage of a provision which allowed everyone who resided in the Saar as recently as 1919 to vote in the plebiscite, tried to confirm the doctor’s name but were unsuccessful.
Terrified when a photographer who recognized him attempted to take his picture, the man pulled his collar over his face, ran down three decks and lost himself in the crowd. He was heard to whine that his practice in New York would be ruined if his picture were printed in the newspapers.
The physician was one of twenty-seven who returned from the Saar aboard the Europa. All feared to be photographed, none would reveal his residence address and only a few would even give their last names. The returning voyagers were universally afraid of the effect publicity would have on their economic futures in this country.
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.
