The death of the Jewish banker, Hofman, in Kissingen, as a result of imprisonment by the Nazis is revealed today by the Labor daily, Het Volk, which claims that the German Foreign Office did everything in its power to hush up the case because Herr Hofman was a relative of Governor Herbert Lehman of New York.
His death, according to the paper, startled Berlin and embarrassed the Foreign Office in view of his relationship to the New York governor.
The banker was arrested by the Nazis at Kissingen and died after two weeks in prison, but the family was ordered to announce that he had died of a stroke although only a few hours before his death the family admitted that Herr Hofman was still imprisoned.
The paper claims to have learned from a reliable source that anti-Jewish persecutions have been resumed on a large scale in Bavaria, particularly in the small towns and villages. In spite of the reassuring Government announcements that visitors to German health resorts would not be molested, the paper claims, the rabbi of Kissingen has been in prison for three weeks and the synagogue there repeatedly searched. A large number of Jewish citizens there, with whom Herr Hofman was imprisoned, are still in custody, the paper says.
Reached at his office, yesterday, in Albany, by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Governor Herbert H. Lehman declared that “so far as I know, I have no relatives in Germany by that name”. He pointed out, however, that he has not been in close touch with all the members of his family who may reside in Germany, and that Herr Hofman may be distantly related.
At the office of Arthur Lehman, brother of the Governor, it was said that the Lehman family had a distant relative by the name of Hofman in Germany., It was said that no word had been received here about the reported death.
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.
