Nazi Papers Admit Corruption of German Officials in Ghettos in Occupied Lands

Nazi newspapers reaching here today through neutral countries openly describe the corruption which German officials are practicing in the Jewish ghettos in occupied countries, as well as the mounting resentment within the Reich against the Gestapo and higher Nazi functionaries.

The Deutsche Zeitung im Ostland, a Nazi newspaper published in Riga for the occupied Baltic States, reveals that Nazi officials are extorting money from Jews in the Riga ghetto under the pretext of securing permission for them to leave the ghetto. One such official, named Ernest Ledins, has been sentenced by the special court in Riga to ten years at hard labor, the paper reports.

The Schwarze Korps, official organ of the Gestapo, complains that the average German’s hatred of officials of the Nazi party is growing visibly. “Nearly everyone knows some small trader who occasionally indulges in clandestine transactions, but the police time and again have experienced difficulty in apprehending him, because he is protected by the little man’s solidarity. On the other hand, the little man, while not betraying his fellow, has great fun in suspecting and gossiping about high state officials and members of the Nazi party even if there is no truth in the rumors.

“Whenever a big man is accused and convicted,” the Gestapo organ continues, “there is great satisfaction on the part of the general public. No sentence is considered too severe. Death sentences in such cases are universally applauded, but a sentence of mere penal servitude is criticized. People then say ‘the judge must have been bribed with a gift of eggs in order to let the accused off so lightly.’ Condemning the suspicious attitude towards the Nazi officials, the Schwarze Korps concludes by calling the “little man” to give up his prejudices and to report to the Gestapo “the multitudes of petty offenses now occurring in Germany.”