Professor Albert Einstein, remembering the case of Captain Alfred Dreyfus who languished for years in the dreaded “Devil’s Island” condemned as guilty of betraying French military secrets, has raised his voice in behalf of a German, Walter Bullerjahn, who has received the name of the “German Dreyfus.”
Bullerjahn is not a Jew. Since 1925, he has been in prison, under a fifteen year sentence, on charges of having disclosed illegal stores to the Allied Military Commission through a French official, Lieutenant Jean Jost.
Prof. Einstein, as a member of the German League for the Rights of Man, has led a fight to secure justice for Bullerjahn. Lieutenant Jost, it is maintained, if permitted to testify for the “German Dreyfus,” could exonerate him. But the French have refused to permit him to do so.
Professor Einstein has now prevailed upon the German authorities, it is understood, to officially ask France to permit Lieutenant Jost to testify.
Such a request, it is learned, has been made to the French government through the German Ambassador in Paris.
Lieutenant Jost has denied any acquaintance with Bullerjahn and any knowledge of the illegal supply as a result of a connection with the latter.
Bullerjahn, the son of an officer was a storekeeper in the Berlin Karsruhe Works in 1924. He was arrested on charges of treason and speedily convicted on evidence offered by an old man with whom he had quarreled, who subsequently lost his reason, and that of an unnamed person whose identity was guarded by the court. The latter, it was revealed, was held to be Baron Paul von Gotard, who has been charged with bribing French newspapers to bring about war scares in order to boom the sale of munitions.
Bullerjahn had a perfect record of service, but was not popular with fellow officials.
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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.
