Services commemorative of the 1959 swastika desecration of the new synagogue here, recalling the offensive acts that started a series of world wide manifestations of anti-Semitism, were held here today at the synagogue and at the monument to victims of nazism in the center of Cologne.
Participating in the services were representatives of the Jewish community here as well as officers and members of the Society of Christians and Jews. All of the speakers condemned the anti-Semitic manifestations. One of the participants, Paul Schallueck, a German author, declared that the fears of resurgent anti-Semitism expressed universally during the height of the manifestations of last year were “exaggerated.” “Developments during recent months,” he stated, “have shown that the German people as a whole do not condone anti-Semitism.”
Meanwhile, a local court here this weekend freed Paul Josef Schoenen, one of the two men who had been convicted of last year’s synagogue desecration. He had been re-arrested on suspicion of having committed another atrocity of the same type. Schoenen, who had served ten months in Jail for the Christmas Eve desecration of 1959, was arrested again last week when some fresh swastika-smearings were discovered in Cologne. The court ruled, however, that the witnesses who testified against him on the new charge were themselves “untrustworthy.”
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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.
