Israel Albert Levitan, Jewish Telegraphic Agency Berlin correspondent, expelled from Germany, arrived here Friday from Paris on the S. S. Leviathan.
Levitan was arrested by Hitler’s Tcheka, the so-called Geheime Staats Polizel, early on August 27. During the entire day he was questioned as to his activities in Germany and on his connections with German Jewish organizations. He also was asked whether he is connected with the division of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency which distributed news in Germany.
To the last question Levitan replied in the negative, explaining that his work was to send German news out of Germany, but inquiries to his connections with Jewish organizations he refused to answer.
Hitler’s Tcheka then declared him imprisoned.
At 10 o’clock that morning the American consul, Raymond Geist, was informed by a friend of Levitan of the correspondent’s arrest. Geist immediately went to the Brown inquisition and secured Levitan’s release until August 29, when he was to return and learn of his ultimate fate. On the same afternoon all his papers, copies of his telegrams and all his private correspondence were confiscated. These papers are all still in the files of the secret police.
The correspondent decided not to rely on Nazi “justice,” however, and crossed the German border on the next morning. On the following day, the American consul was informed by the secret police, who had not yet learned of Levitan’s escape, that the correspondent would be expelled.
“It is too late,” the consul said. “He has left the country already.”
“Then he will not be permitted to return,” replied the Brown inquisitor.
From Berlin Levitan escaped to Antwerp, Holland, and from there he went to Paris. A few days later he boarded the Leviathan to return to America.
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.
