Seven Germans Receive Jail Sentences and Fines for Anti-jewish Acts

Six men and a woman received jail sentences and heavy fines for anti-Semitic acts in West Germany during the last week-end, according to reports received at Government headquarters here today. In two other instances, both in the State of Schleswig-Holstein, the State Ministry of Education has received complaints from parents who accused teachers and courts of being too harsh against pupils charged with anti-Semitic acts.

Among those convicted of slandering Jews were Anton Plass, a 47-year-old watchmaker, of Minden, sentenced to four months in jail plus a fine; a 24-year-old truck driver in Manheim, sentenced for three months; a carpenter at Bad Nauheim, sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment; a laborer and a forester, at Bad Nauheim, sentenced to two months and four months, respectively; and a housewife at Steinheim, fined 200 marks.

In Hanaus a 45-year-old laborer has been sentenced to two months in jail for yelling at a Jewish bar owner that “since Hitler forgot to kill you, I will do it now. ” The laborer, Ernest Krebs, pleaded before the Hanau Jury Court that he had been intoxicated but Judge A. Gatzsche said “severe punishment” was needed as a deterrent to others.

At Launburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, parents complained that a high school principal “unjustly” caused the arrest of a 15-year-old boy caught painting the swastika on the walls of the school building.

At Wetzlar, in the same State, a 12-year-old boy was sentenced in juvenile court to detention, after being caught scribbling on a shop window the words “SS Is Fine. ” The boy’s parents claimed the letters SS stood for the name of his girl friend, Susanna Schmidt, and not for the initials of the Hitler security police. However, the court threw out the complaint, after ascertaining that the boy’s mother had been a school mate of the late Josef Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister.