The Naples public prosecutor filed an appeal today to the Supreme Judiciary Court against the release of Ludwig Zind, the Offenburg high school teacher who fled from West Germany in 1958 to avoid a prison term for an anti-Semitic utterance.
A lower court ruled last week that Zind, who was sentenced on April 11,1958, to a year’s imprisonment for libel and defamation of the dead for declaring publicly that “not enough Jews were gassed, ” was a political refugee and entitled to the usual protection granted by civilized countries for such refugees.
Pending the Supreme Court’s decision, expected within one or two months, Zind will remain in jail. His attorneys meanwhile planned to present a counter-appeal to the Supreme Court contesting the prosecutor’s right to prevent Zind’s immediate release.
The teacher escaped to Italy a day after the Federal Supreme Court in Karlsruhe rejected the defense plea that he was drunk when he made the statement during a quarrel with Kurt Lieser, a half-Jewish merchant. He was recognized in Italy last summer by Israeli sailors as he was boarding a ship for Egypt, arrested and jailed. The lower court ruled that Zind was simply expressing a “personal opinion” when he made his remark about Jews and gassing.
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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.
