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Professor Cohn Threatened with Death if He Persists in Lecture Series

January 27, 1933
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Death threats were sent yesterday by mail and over the telephone to Professor Ernst Cohn, the center of an embittered Nazi battle, aimed at securing his ouster on the ground that he is a Jew.

No lectures by Professor Cohn were scheduled yesterday. This did not deter hundreds of Nazis from assembling in the vicinity of the University in a demonstration against him. “Down with Cohn!” was the refrain.

Leaflets calling upon sympathizers to prevent Professor Cohn from delivering his scheduled lectures today were distributed by the Nazis.

Professor Cohn, it is learned, is determined not to be intimidated by the Nazis and to continue his lecture series which were resumed on Tuesday after a long controversy following which he was reinstated by the action of the University Senate. The Tuesday lecture was couped with riots and demonstrations. Stench bombs and gas bombs were employed by the Nazis to break up the lectures. Despite this, Professor Cohn delivered two lectures.

The University, it is reported, is considering asking Professor Cohn to take a vacation at the end of the semester next month in the hope that the agitation against him will die down.

Professor Cohn is a civil servant and as such cannot be dismissed unless he is guity of misconduct. Thus far he has not given ground for a dismissal. Twenty-eight years old, he received the unusual honor of being named a full professor, despite his youth, because he is regarded as an authority on Commercial Law.

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