Bernhard-poliakoff Case Put Before World Jewish Congress

The controversy surrounding the alleged sale of the Pariser Tageblatt, Paris emigre anti-Nazi newspaper, to Nazi interests last June was placed before the executive of the World Jewish Congress today by the former publisher and former editor.

Vladimir Poliakoff, former owner of the paper, and Georg Bernhard, ex-editor, who is now managing the Pariser Tageszeitung, the paper founded by the former employes of the Tageblatt, submitted letters to the executive outlining their respective cases regarding charges of bad faith leveled against Poliakoff.

The ex-proprietor recalled that on June 11, 1936, two members of the Tageblatt staff, with the consent of Bernhard, who was then in New York accused him of having knowingly betrayed his people by selling the paper to the Gestapo (German secret police).

Denying this charge, Poliakoff declared that the Foreign Press Association of Paris had examined the accusation and found it entirely false, aimed at enabling illegal expropriation of the paper under a political pretext. He added that the accusation constituted “assassination of character” and demanded that the executive consider the matter at its next meeting.

Dr. Bernhard, who until the accession of the Nazis was a prominent journalist in Germany, in a letter to the executive repeated assertions that Poliakoff had associated with Dr. Schmolz, representative of the German Propaganda Ministry. He also accused the former proprietor of having requested the manager of the Tageblatt to adopt a more favorable attitude toward the Third Reich.

Dr.Bernhard founded the Tageblatt in 1933 and was editor until June 11, 1935, when he claimed he was discharged under the alleged sale to the Nazis. From New York he immediately negotiated with his co-employees to found the Tageszeitung.