A Municipal Court decision has been issued preventing payment to Nazi commissars of debts owned by four New York haberdashers to a Vienna tie and scarf factory expropriated from its former Jewish owners. Citing a decision by the late Supreme Court Justice Cardozo in a case involving the post-war Russian Government before it was recognized by the United States, Justice Abram Goodman yesterday ordered the payment of the debts totaling $2,029 to the assignee of Herman and Ernst Spielman, former owners of Spielman & Sohn, and now refugees in Paris.
The decision, the first of its kind, termed the German seizure of Jewish business firms. “Brigandage.” The ruling is expected to serve as a precedent in many other cases involving Austria and Sudetenland, whose annexation has not yet been recognized by the United States Government.
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.
