Public hearings into Nazi terrorism in England and in other countries were opened today under the chairmanship of Hector Hughes, member of the King’s Court. The hearings are spnsored by the Bishop of Birmingham, and by a special commission consisting of Prof. J. B. S. Haldane and a number of members of the British Parliament.
The principal witnesses at the hearing today were Mrs. Berthold Jakob, wife of the German-Jewish journalist who was kidnaped by the Nazis in Switzerland, and Mrs. Theodor Lessing, widow of the German-Jewish professor who was assassinated two years ago by Nazi agents in Czechoslovakia.
MRS. JACOB COLLAPSES
Mrs. Jacob collapesd as she was testifying at today’s hearing. She was not able to continue her testimony, in which she related the details of a visit paid by her father-in-law to the kidnaped journalist in a Berlin jail. Mrs. Jakob’s story is the first public intimation that Herr Jakob is still alive. After his kidnaping it had been reported that he had been beaten to death in a concentration camp.
Mrs. Lessing calmly related the details of her husband’s assassination by Nazi agents in Marienbad in 1933, a few months after he left Germany as a political refugee.
The committee which instituted these public hearings has examined
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