Swiss Trial Reveals Network of Nazi Agents in Pay of Reich

A network of berlin-financed nazi agents, boring from within German groups in several European countries, was revealed today in a sensational court trial, which threw some light on propaganda methods used by the Hitler forces in Austria.

Documents seized by Swiss police, indicating the Reich was financing Nazi organizations abroad, supplying them with passports and aiding anti-Jewish agitation, were read in court as an outgrowth of a libel suit by a Nazi leader against a Swiss author.

The documents, impounded by the police last November in a raid on the home of Boris Toedli, whose trial for espionage in behalf of Germany is pending, were introduced by counsel for C.A. Loosli, who is being sued by Dr. Lehnard, head of the Swiss Nazis.

The present trial is an outgrowth of the Berne trial of 1935 involving “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” record of a purported plot for Jewish world domination, in which case Loosli was a witness against the Nazis, and which resulted in the Denunciation of the “Protocols” by the court as a forgery.

Dr. Lifshitz, counsel for Loosli, read the seized Toedli documents in court today. They indicate:

1–Germany is financing pro-Nazi organizations abroad.

2–German embassies abroad assist Nazi Agents with passports and visas.

3–Berne is the communications center for the Third Reich’s western European network, with agents in practically all countries of western Europe.

4–Germany has paid special attention to stimulating, through Berne, an aggressive anti-Jewish propaganda campaign in western European countries, for which funds came from Berlin and Erfurt, Germany’s center of anti-Semitic propaganda.

5–Special remittances were made from Germany to cover defence costs in the “Protocols” trial.

6–The Berne center maintained contact with two Nazi groups in Paris, one headed by Markhoff, leader of the anti-Semitic faction of the pre-Revolution Russian Duma, and another headed by Baron von Potters, former Hungarian Consul in Munich, who fled from France after being involved in the exposure of the Cagoulards, hooded French terrorist organization.

Dr. Lipchitz submitted photographs of some documents in possession of the police establishing that Lehnhard received funds from Germany during the 1935 “Protocols” trial.

In the course of his two-hour speech he described the Third Reich as operating an espionage and propaganda network through its headquarters in Switzerland, with Agents in Switzerland maintaining contact with agents all over Europe, and also with Tsarist emigres from Russia in Paris and the Balkans. Lipchitz Quoted from documents to show that Nazi agents worked under aliases.

The court reserved decision, announcing that the verdict would be handed down in writing in the near future. The trial was of unusual interest as a prologue to Trellis trial next April on charges of espionage for a foreign country against Switzerland. Col. Ulrich Fleischer, Nazi witness in the “Protocols” trial and head of an organization publishing anti-Semitic literature in Erfurt, will be co-defendant, charged with espionage and also with giving false testimony in the 1935 trial.

Toed, a Swiss citizen, was arrested Nov. 22, 1937, when Swiss police discovered in his home some 300 documents and letters indicating that he and others were in touch with the Third Reich and received funds and instructions for stimulating Nazi propaganda. Toed subsequently escaped to Germany.