This city’s first “rassenschande” (race defilement) trial, one which featured international complications, ended here today with the sentencing of Otto Jaffe, 43-year-old German Jew, to fifteen months in prison.
Jaffe was brought to trial for having lived since 1933 with a woman, who, though she is German-born, possesses a certificate from the Turkish Embassy here attesting to the fact that she is a Turkish citizen, by virtue of a previous marriage to a Turk. As a Turkish citizen, neither she nor her husband would have been held subject to the Nuremberg laws “for the protection of German blood and German honor.”
The court, however, ruled that she could not be a citizen of two countries and on that ground convicted Jaffe. The couple are the parents of a child.
According to the Berlin Tageblatt which reports the trial, the case is the first of a long series which are to be heard in the local courts.
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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.
