A local high school teacher who refused to admit Jewish students to his class “because I am and shall always remain an anti-Semite, was separated from his post, but granted 75 percent of his salary for 18 months “in view of the fact that he served honorably in the war.”
For the first time in the ten post-war years during which educator Paul Joseph Rump has taught school in the Kreuzberg section of Berlin Jewish students a pair of twins were assigned to his class some months ago. He stated bluntly that he would not accept them because they were Jewish, but offered to take in their place two retarded or obstreperous boys from some other class, so that he would not gain an “undue advantage” from his refusal.
The parents of the twins forced the issue to a showdown. Since Rump would not yield and, as his superiors suggested, represent the incident as a misunderstanding, the case was brought before the Civil Service Disciplinary Chamber of the West Berlin Administrative Court.
The judge, Dr. H. Graeser, found that Rump must be separated from civil service, since he had disobeyed a legal assignment and persisted in his disobedience. Yet Rump’s anti-Semitism, Dr. Graeser ruled, is “understandable from the human aspect” and he is not unworthy of substantial severance pay “in view of the fact that he has no record of prior convictions and that he served honorably in the war.”
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.
