Otto Strasser, linked with Helmuth Hirsch in the alleged bomb plot against a high Nazi official for which the young Jew of American nationality was executed in Berlin last week, has indicated the belief that Hirsch was “framed.”
Strasser, a former close friend of Chancellor Hitler who turned against the Reichsfuehrer when his brother was shot in Hitler’s “blood purge” of June, 1934, expressed his views in an interview in Praha published today by the London Daily Express.
Hirsch’s friends had accused Otto Strasser of being responsible for the youth’s death by sending him to Germany.
“I helped Hirsch to go to Germany last December,” strasser admitted, “but there was no question of a plot against Hitler. He did not carry luggage of any kind, but the same evening that Hirsch was arrested in Stuttgart German police say he had a trunk containing bombs.
“It is possible that the trunk was foisted on him during the journey to obtain evidence.”
Dr. Drabek, Hirsch’s attorney, was quoted by the Daily Express as saying:
“It is a mystery to me what Hirsch wanted to do. He was being used by idealistic youth whose thoughts were far from bomb-throwing. Undoubtedly he was being used by others who betrayed him. The truth will probably never be known.”
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.
