Kaunas.
The ambitions of the Hitler government to annex Memel, the Free Harbor, to the Third Reich, and the Nazi activities which the agents of the German government are organizing in the Memel territory have given the Lithuanian government here caues for deep concern.
An investigation by the government into Nazi activities in Memel has established that the Nazi groups there are entirely directed by and dependent upon Germany. The leaders of these groups traveled to Berlin, Koenigsberg and Tilsit, and there conducted negotiations with the leaders of the German Nazi party.
The German government did not confine itself to interfering in Lithuania’s domestic affairs, but also conducted activities through its consulate general in Memel, otherwise known as the Klaipeda territory.
In view of that position, when the Klaipeda territory had become a Nazi camp and the invasion of Hitler shock units into the Klaipeda territory was momentarily expected, the Lithuanian government was obliged to resort to speedy and drastic measures.
When stopping Nazi activity in the Klaipeda territory, the Lithuanian government could not, however, refrain from removing the principal culprit responsible for that anti-State movement, Dr. Schreiber, the Chairman of the Directory. Near him that movement was born, grew up and flourished to such a degree that eventually it could become the beginning of fresh world unrest. Even certain officials of the Klaipeda territorial autonomous institutions adhered to that anti-State movement, the supreme chief of these being Dr. Schreiber, the Chairman of the Directory.
With the Directory’s knowledge and acquiesence those officials joined the Nazi parties in the Klaipeda territory and did treasonable work, not to mention Sziegaud himself a member of the Directory who participated in those parties. As an example may be mentioned the correspondence of the teacher Grau with the Schreiber Directory. Grau, having asked the Directory’s consent to be a Kreisleiter of the “Sozialistische Volksgemeinschaft,” was told that for that matter the Directory’s consent was wholly unnecessary, whereas, according to the general procedure, a teacher in the Klaipeda territory, who wishes to be a communal chief or even the guardian of a minor, must absolutely obtain the Directory’s permission.
The Lithuanian court organs possess ample material about the treasonable activity of the teacher Grau, his lecturas at secret meetings, where he urged that the Klaipeda territory must be taken from Lithuania and united to Germany; that the youth of Klaipedia territory must follow the German S. A. and S. S. and be prepared for action.
Dr. Schreiber did not understand or did not wish to understand his position as chairman of the principal institution of an autonomous unit of the Lithuanian State, and was not left unaffected by the German Nazi movement and the evangel proclaimed by that movement.
He sympathized with Neumann’s party, i.e. he regarded as the real leader in the Klaipeda territory him whom Germany had appointed. Neumann’s appeals are signed by the high officials of the autonomous institutions. Recruiting posters for Neumann’s party were hung up in the premises of the autonomous institutions, not excepting the Directory.
Letters of the Governor of Klaipeda territory, addressed to the Directory and having nothing in common with Dr. Neumann’s profession as a veterinary surgeon, were found in Dr. Neumann’s portfolio. Even the Chamber of Representatives of the Klaipeda territory, one faction of which (the Landwirtschaftspartei) solemnly in corpore joined Neumann’s party, sent Dr. Neumann its agenda, the Law of Tenants’ Security, the Law of Lithuanian Court Procedure, the introduction to the Law of Social Provision considered by the Chamber’s Laws Committee, with the Governor’s opinion, etc., etc.
It is clear that both the Schreiber Directory and the Klaipeda territorial Chamber sent all this to Dr. Neumann not as the veterinary surgeon of the Silute district, but as leader of the Nazi movement in the Klaipeda territory. This shows the subordination of the Klaipeda territory’s autonomous institutions to a leader appointed from abroad, and recognition of the leader (Fuehrer) principle. hus the Governor of the Klaipeda territory had found himself in such a position that he had to do not with the Directory and Chamber of Representatives, but indirectly with the leader in the Klaipeda territory of anti-State and treasonable activity, appointed from abroad—Dr. Neumann.
Such a position could not longer continue, and the Lithuanian government had to draw appropriate conclusions. Dr. Schreiber could not continue to remain longer in the place of Chairman of the Directory, having become the tool of a foreign State to carry out aims defined by it.
Under Dr. Schreiber’s Directory, the Klaipeda territorial schools last year had become centers for the inoculation of National Socialism, and children from nine to ten years old were learning to draw the “Hakenkreuz.” The pupils of the senior classes already formed youth groups preparing themselves for the step of wresting the Klaipeda territory from Lithuania.
The same thing was going on among the personnel of officialdom, the autonomous police, and the Klaipeda territorial courts. Many of them joined in Neu-
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.
