I am a Nazi storm troop leader, but I did not take any part in the Kurfuerstendamm excesses, Count Helldorf, the Berlin Hitlerist storm troop commander who is charged with having organised and directed the anti-Jewish outbreak in Berlin last Rosh Hashanah declared, when the trial against him and his fellow prisoners was reopened to-day, after the adjournment in the early part of the month to hear the objection lodged against the judge, Land Court Director Dr. Schmitz, on the ground that he was biased because his wife is of Jewish origin and that he had already pre-judged Count Helldorf in the previous trial in which he had sentenced several other participants in the excesses, including Count Helldorf’s chauffeur.
Land Court Director Dr. Brennhausen is now presiding judge in place of Dr. Schmitz.
The charge against Count Helldorf and against his adjutant, Ernst, is that they were the ringleaders of a serious disturbance of the peace of the realm, while the other prisoners, Engineer Brandt, the leader of the Young Steelhelm Brigade, Hagemeister, Hell, Samerski, Dombrowski and Schultz, are accused of committing a serious disturbance of the peace of the realm.
In a long statement to the court, Count Helldorf traced his career, explaining that he had been called up for service during the war when he was only seventeen, and he had gone out immediately to the front, being promoted officer for valour in the field. After the Revolution and the establishing of the Republic, he had joined in the Kapp Putsch. He had then gone into business and suffered heavy financial losses, on account of which he had been compelled to sell his ancestral estates. Now, he told the court, I am being supported by relatives.
Count Helldorf emphatically denied that he had been a ringleader of the anti-Jewish outbreak, insisting that he had gone to the scene of the disturbances in the Kurfuerstendamm only as an observer to see what was happening and to try to quieten things.
All the other accused flatly denied that they had taken any part in the disturbances.
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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.
