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Nazi Press Hits Libel Verdict in Koenigsberg

May 15, 1935
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The court in Koenigsburg is severely criticized today in the entire Nazi press, for its recent ruling against the Nazi district leader Otto Raatz, who was fined sixty marks.

Raatz was sued for libel by an “Aryan” journalist, Dr. Seraphim, because the former called him a Jew. The court ruled that it is an insult to call a person “Jew” even if it is proven that he is of Jewish origin.

“The verdict of the court is a contradiction of all our racial feelings,” the head of the Racial Department of the National Socialist Party headquarters stated today.

The Voelkischer Beobachter, also the National-Socialistische Correspondenz, a Nazi syndicate, strongly denounced the Koenigsburg judge for his motive in the ruling. The National Lawyers League is urged to see to it that “repetition of such verdicts is prevented.”

The court in Westphalia today followed the ruling of the Supreme Court of Prussia in issuing a decision that Jewish lawyers are not to be retained for poor defendants where the State has to bear the cost of the defense.

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