Czecho-slovakian Jewish Party Enquiring into Weissberger Affair

The Jewish Party in Czecho-Slovakia has delegated its political Secretary, Dr. Otto Arye, to Michalovce, the home-town of Samuel Weissberger, who is under arrest on a charge of having shot on November 10th., 1918 two peasants named Kucik and Jurca, in order to conduct an investigation on the spot.

The township in which the two peasants lived and were shot is now part of Hungary.

The J.T.A. representative learns from an authoritative source that the Czecho-Slovakian investigating authorities have approached the Hungarian authorities with a request for information with regard to the claim made by the Defence that Weissberger had been demobilised from the gendarmerie by the end of October 1918, and so could not have been a member of the punitive expedition of November 10th., 1918, which executed the two peasants.

Weissberger’s Counsel, Dr. Taenzer, of Kaschau, and Dr. Gruenwald and Dr. Hajna, of Michalovce, are convinced that the documents when they arrived from Hungary will prove Weissberger’s innocence.

The J.T.A. representative also learns that the Defence has applied for bail for Weissberger in the amount of one million kronen. The court has not yet announced its decision.

Samuel Weissberger is 55 years of age. He has three children aged 14, 18, and 22. He has lived in Michalovce for 34 years, and is the richest inhabitant of the town, on which account there is a considerable amount of local feeling against him among a section of the peasant population. He is the proprietor of a big ironware business, and his clients are mainly peasants from the villages round about, who buy their agricultural implements there.

In 1915 he was mobilised and was stationed at the gendarmerie post at Strazece, where he served until October 26th., 1918, when he demobilised on his own responsibility, gave up his uniform and arms, and returned to Michalovce. The gendarmerie command in Sator Ujhel, in Hungary, has all the papers relating to his demobilisation, and at one time he was even threatened with proceedings on a charge of desertion, because he had demobilised on his own responsibility.

Weissberger declares that he was never in his life in Sbinec, where the execution of the two peasants took place.

The bodies of the two peasants have been exhumed, and show that the bullets were fired by an expert shot, while the evidence is agreed that Weissberger during his period of service was on the clerical staff, and had no training in the use of firearms.

In the early part of November, there were disturbances in the neighbourhood of Michalovce, which, at that time was still under Hungarian rule, and the Czecho-Slovakian army did not march into the town until January 1919. During the November disturbances, the gendarmerie command at Sator Ujhel sent to Michalovce a motor lorry with 20 gendarmes and two machine-guns to put down the looting and acts of violence in the neighbourhood. This punitive expedition visited a large number of villages round about, and on November 10th., 1918 shot a number of peasants who had taken part in the disturbances, including the two peasants, Kucik and Jurca, of Zbinec, who were regarded as the ringleaders in their area.

This thirteen year old affair is said to have been revived now, on a complaint lodged by a Slovakian publican named Curi, who was annoyed with Weissberger because he had refused to accept his bill for an amount of 10,000 kronen.