We went out to the Kurfuerstendamm because we wanted to see how the Jews celebrate their New Year and we also wanted to show them that there are other people in Berlin as well as Jews, five of the prisoners, Bonin, Schulze, Merker, Fristl and Pawling told the Court this afternoon, when they were asked how they had come to be on the scene of the disturbances.
As if by arrangement, all the prisoners withdrew at the continued hearing this afternoon the previous statements they had made to the police, that they had only obeyed the orders of their leaders, and they insisted that it was only by accident that they had happened to be passing the scene of the disturbances and were drawn into the conflict.
The President of the Court, Judge Schmitz, pointed, however, to the fact that there were a large number of members of the Hitlerist storm troops among the prisoners, which could not be an accident, and he also drew attention to the knives and cudgels lying on the prosecution table. People who happen to get mixed up by accident in an affray are not found carrying weapons, he said, and from all the evidence before the court, it appears plain that there was an agreed plan of action.
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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.
