Theodore Fritsch, German author and leader of the anti-Semitic movement, was sentenced today to three months imprisonment in libel action, after a sensational trial in which Max Warburg and the banker Melchior, Germany’s financial experts at the Peace Conference, were the complainants.
Fritsch had published a number of articles in the anti-Semitic paper, "Hammer", and issued leaflets, in which he claimed that Warburg and Melchior, while representing Germany at Versailles, betrayed their country in favor of America and the Allied governments.
In his argument before the Court, Attorney Jacobsen, counsel for the defense, delivered an anti-Semitic speech, in which he stated that the complainants belong to the Jewish high finance circles which exercise their influence on all sides and are responsible for the World War.
Theodore Fritsch, in his explanations, could not offer any evidence to support the charges he had made in his articles and leaflets. He merely expressed his "conviction" that Warburg is annually training five hundred Russian Jews as bank officials and future diplomats.
Max Warburg submitted data on the part he played during the Versailles Peace Conference. The history of Germany, he said, has proved the fact that the Jews were good advisors for the state in times of emergency, as is evidenced in the case of Bleichroeder, the German Jewish banker, who advised Bismarck on financial matters.
Mr. Warburg stated that he had not been in communication with his brother, Paul Warburg, American banker, during the time of the War, nor did he see President Wilson when the president was in France.
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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.
