An article in a daily German newspaper has charged that a journalist here actually was a Nazi official responsible for killing Jews in an area of Ukraine.
According to an article published last Friday in TAZ, Peter Grubbe, a progressive German journalist and author of several books on the Third World, is actually Claus Volkmann, a Nazi official involved in the extermination of the Jewish population in Kolomea, in what is now the Ukraine.
In a three-page piece – with the headline “There are two lives before death” – author Philipp Mausshardt details the story of what he says is the double life of the journalist.
Apparently, Mausshardt researched the journalist for several years at government offices in Ludwigsburg and at Yad Yashem in Jerusalem.
Volkmann, as Nazi regional commander in the Kolomea-Galicia area, was responsible for the death of Kolomea’s remaining 30,000 Jews, TAZ charged in the story.
Mausshardt wrote that Volkmann had a conflict with the area Gestapo leader, Peter Leideritz, who favored the direct extermination of the Jews. Volkmann advocated first taking over Jewish property and prior to extermination, demanding payments from the town’s Jews, according to the article.
Mausshardt spoke with Grubbe, who denied the accusations and claimed that his actions actually helped the Jews.
When asked why he decided to change his name in 1945, the journalist said he did not want to write under Volkmann, his given name, because his father was also a writer, the article said.
An accompanying article in the newspaper said several other progressive, well- known journalists were Nazis during the war.
The story cited Werner Hoefer, who moderated the popular television show Presse Club until his Nazi past was revealed. Hilmar Pabel, a star photographer for the illustrated magazine Stern, and Hermann Proebst, editor in chief of the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, a liberal-leaning daily, were also mentioned.
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.
