THE NAZI GOVERNMENT’S METHODS OF SPREADING ANTI-SEMITISM ABROAD AND FINANCING ANTI-JEWISH ACTIVITIES THROUGHOUT THE WORLD WERE REVEALED TODAY BY THE ARREST HERE OF BORIS TOEDLI, A SWISS CITIZEN, ON SUSPICION OF CONDUCTING ESPIONAGE ACTIVITIES ON BEHALF OF GERMANY.
POLICE DISCOVERED IN TOEDLI’S HOME 300 DOCUMENTS AND LETTERS INDICATING THAT HE AND OTHERS WERE IN CONSTANT TOUCH WITH THE THIRD REICH AND RECEIVED FUNDS AND INSTRUCTIONS FOR STIMULATING ANTI-JEWISH PROPAGANDA. POLICE IMPOUNDED MORE THAN 150 OF THE DOCUMENTS AND PHOTOGRAPHED THEM FOR USE AS EVIDENCE IN TOEDLI’S TRIAL.
AMONG THE DOCUMENTS ARE PAPERS INDICATING THAT THE GERMAN AUTHORITIES FINANCE THE ACTIVITIES OF WHITE RUSSIAN ANTI-SEMITES AND AID THEM TO THE POINT OF ISSUING GERMAN VISAS TO THEM.
AN OFFICIAL RECEIPT WAS FOUND, SIGNED BY TOEDLI ON MAY 5, 1935, ACKNOWLEDGING MONEY FROM GERMANY ” COVERING THE COST OF THE PROTOCOLS TRIAL.” THIS EVIDENTLY REFERS TO THE TRIAL IN BERNE IN THE AUTUMN OF 1934 IN WHICH THE JEWISH COMMUNITY INSTITUTED LIBEL PROCEEDINGS AGAINST SWISS NAZI LEADERS FOR DISTRIBUTING THE ” PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION,” PURPORTED RECORD OF A PLOT FOR JEWISH DOMINATION OF THE WORLD. THE VERDICT AT THIS TRIAL DECLARED THE ” PROTOCOLS” A FORGERY.
THE SEIZED DOCUMENTS ALSO INVOLVE A NUMBER OF RUSSIANS IN PARIS AND HARBIN, MANCHUKUO, INCLUDING MARKOFF, THE NOTORIOUS LEADER OF THE ANTI-SEMITIC FRACTION OF THE PRE-REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIAN DUMA. ACCORDING TO INFORMATION RECEIVED HERE, MARKOFF RECENTLY TRANSFERRED FROM PARIS TO ERFURT, GERMANY, WHERE HE IS ACTING AS ASSISTANT TO COL. ULRICH FLEISCHAUER’S ” WELTDIENST,” WORLD-WIDE ANTI-SEMITIC PROPAGANDA SERVICE.
TOEDLI, IT WAS SHOWN, ACTED AS BERNE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE WELTDIENST, AS WELL AS GAULEITER (NAZI DISTRICT LEADER) FOR BERNE AND ALSO DEPUTY LEADER OF THE RUSSIAN WORLD FASCIST ORGANIZATION, WHICH HAS HEADQUARTERS IN HARBIN. ALTHOUGH SWISS-BORN, TOEDLI LIVED MOST OF HIS LIFE IN RUSSIA, AND THE NAZIS ASSERTEDLY BROUGHT HIM FROM HARBIN TO SWITZERLAND IN ORDER TO USE HIS SWISS CITIZENSHIP TO COVER UP HIS NAZI ACTIVITIES.
AMONG TOEDLI’S DOCUMENTS POLICE UNEARTHED A LIST OF FALSE NAMES UNDER WHICH 26 NAZI AGENTS WERE SAID TO BE OPERATING IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES. THE PAPERS ALSO REVEALED THAT GERMAN CONSULATES HAVE BEEN INSTRUCTED TO ISSUE VISAS TO WHITE RUSSIANS ACTING AS GERMAN AGENTS WHO ARE INCAPABLE OF OBTAINING VISAS FROM THE NANSEN INTERNATIONAL OFFICE FOR ” STATELESS” REFUGEES.
SOME OF THESE RUSSIANS, IT WAS DISCLOSED BY THE DOCUMENTS, WERE PAID FROM NAZI SOURCES TO TRAVEL TO BERNE TO TESTIFY AGAINST THE JEWS AT THE SENSATIONAL ” PROTOCOLS” TRIAL. THE MONEY APPEARED TO HAVE BEEN OBTAINED CHIEFLY FROM ALFRED ROSENBERG, ” SPIRITUAL LEADER” OF THE THIRD REICH, AND DR. SIEVERT, ONE OF THE EDITORS OF REICHSFUEHRER HITLER’S VOELKISCHER BEOBACHTER, CHIEF ORGAN OF THE GERMAN NAZI PARTY.
IN ADDITION TO THE FORTHCOMING TRIAL OF TOEDLI, THE SWISS FEDERAL AUTHORITIES ARE STARTING PROCEEDINGS AGAINST COL. FLEISCHAUER, ANTI-SEMITIC LAWYER AND PROPAGANDIST, ON CHARGES OF GIVING FALSE EVIDENCE AT THE 1934 TRIAL.
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.
