David Frankfurter, Yugoslav Jewish medical student who assassinated Wilhelm Gustloff, Swiss Nazi leader, in 1936, has been pardoned after serving half of his eighteen-year term, the Swiss radio announced today. The pardon was granted by the council of the Graubunden Canton in which Frankfurter was tried.
The assassination of Gustloff, at his home in Davos, created an international incident. The Nazi press demanded that Frankfurter be executed and the German ambassador filed an official protest with the Swiss Government. The Swiss replied by banning the Nazi Party.
More than 200 foreign journalists attended Frankfurter’s trial in the town of Chur. In issuing its verdict, the Swiss court said that it had taken into account the medical testimony that the assassin, who was 27 at the time, was suffering from mental depression and the fact that he had surrendered voluntarily to the police.
The Reich press railed against the “mildness” of the verdict and the Voclkischer Beobachter warned the Swiss authorities not to pardon Frankfurter before he had served his full sentence. The Nazi papers declared that the entire Jewish people was responsible and only the approaching Olympic games prevented mass reprisals against Jews in Germany.
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.
