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Jewish Military Leader in East Germany Reportedly Deposed

March 23, 1953
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Herbert Gruenstein a Jew and Inspector General of the East German People’s Police, has been deposed, according to an unconfirmed report reaching here from the soviet zone.

The report says that nothing is known about the 40-year-old Communist leader who served as a Communist political commissar in Spain during the civil war. Gruenstein lived in the Soviet Union during the late war. returning to Berlin only after the collapse of the Nazi regime. He has since risen to high military rank as the East German Republic has increased its police force, which is in effect its army.

Gruenstein has always been an ardent Communist and the only explanation the report makes for his removal is that the Soviet officials in Germany object to his being a Jew and that his wife is said to be a close relative of Ann Pauker, deposed Rumanian Foreign Minister.

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