The political police today granted permission to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to reopen its Berlin bureau for the distribution of news to the agency’s subscribers in Germany. The order is effective Monday and follows several days of effort on the part of George S. Messersmith, American consul general in Berlin, in behalf of the American-owned news service. A ban on the functioning of Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondents in Germany was lifted earlier in the week after strong protests by Mr. Messersmith and Raymond Geist, American consul. The bureau had been ordered closed July 20, and the foreign service ordered suspended July 22.
Ber Smolar, chief European correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and Otto Schick, editor of the Berlin bureau, visited the political police headquarters this afternoon where Mr. Smolar signed an agreement to the effect that M. Wurmbrand, former editor of the bureau, who was transferred to another European capital several months ago, would not resume charge of the Berlin office.
Mr. Schick, who spent a week in jail last May because exception was taken by the authorities to a story that he had written, was asked to sign an agreement that he, as responsible editor of the bureau, would not make remarks offensive to the Government authorities or to any German State. The authorities will notify him of every instance where they feel that the reports carried in the German Bulletin issued by the bureau are offensive.
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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.
