The blood libel affair in Czecho-Slovakia, in which two Jews, Steinberger and Liebermann, are accused of having drawn blood from two Christian children, Vasil Kostia and Helena Bogdan, has again been adjourned after a new hearing by the court.
Fresh expert evidence was supplied at the hearing by Dr. Toman, which completely clears the accused.
The original report of the gendarmerie, on which the accusation is based, stated that Helena Bogdan had a cut in the upper arm and Kostia was stabbed in the palm. Actually, Dr. Toman declares, Helena Bogdan’s wound was so superficial that its existence must have been very difficult for a medical man to determine, and wascertainly not sufficient to enable any blood to be drawn from the wound. Kostia’s wound was only a prick, and was already old at the time it was said to be fresh, and so slight that it had needed only eight days to heal. If anyone had wanted to obtain blood from him, the palm was not the place to pierce, but rather a part of the body which would yield more blood.
According to the original expert evidence before the court the gendarmerie had not trusted the two doctors in the town, who were both Jews, and had brought down a non-Jew, Dr. Ravic, who lives 30 kilometres away, and he had asserted that Kostia’s wound was fresh, had been caused by piercing, and would take 20 days to heal. The mother of the boy had declared at the time that the wound was not fresh, and that it had been caused by a bit of broken glass.
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