A Jewish merchant, Moses Schlank, 53, was sentenced to six weeks’ imprisonment and a six hundred marks fine for a transaction enabling him to have to his credit 1,000 pounds to permit his entry to Palestine in the unrestricted “capitalist” immigration classification. Schlank was convicted of illegal export of currency and sentenced to jail despite the fact that the presiding judge declared the transaction was a “wash” arrangement of no harm to the state or to the value of the German mark.
A friend of Schlank’s, in Palestine, deposited to his account in a Switzerland bank, a thousand pounds and Schlank, in return, mailed a check to his friend to enable him to recover the loan when Schlank arrived in Palestine. The German censor intercepted the letter bearing the check and Schlank’s arrest followed.
Great amusement at the case is expressed in the Nazi Lokal Anzeiger, which saw it an instance of the British Government, placing obstacles in the way of hundred percent non-Aryans entering Palestine, being outwitted. It derides the Jews for their eagerness to go to Palestine although “not a hair is touched on the head of a Jew in Germany.”
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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.
