A special court sitting here sentenced Doctor Ernst Rechnitz, administrative director of the Breslau Jewish community, as responsible editor of the Breslau Gemeindeblatt, the Jewish community newspaper, and Albert Rosenthal, author of the article “Seeking My Brothers”, which was published in the Gemeindeblatt on July 10, to fifteen months imprisonment.
The defendant Rosenthal pointed out that his article merely appealed to Jewish employers to employ Jewish workers. But the prosecution claimed that Rosenthal had alleged that the German Jews were unprotected, which implied that the German government and German Justice were neglecting their duties. Actually, the prosecution said, the German government was protecting Jewish property and Jewish honor just the same as that of all the others.
The counsel for the accused, Walter Tietz, stressed the distinguished service of Dr. Rechnitz in the world war, when he had twice volunteered for the front line, although gravely wounded.
Dr. Rechnitz himself in a moving concluding appeal to the court declared that his forefathers had lived in Upper Silesia for two hundred years and that he did not care how long he was deprived of his liberty, so long as his honor was not violated.
The grave sentence imposed by the special court agitated the whole community, especially since the months spent by the accused in a concentration camp were not deducted from the sentence.
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.
