Paul Schoppan and Heinrich Steinmetz, two Nazi leaders from nearby Usingen who cruelly abused and maltreated the Jewish population during the November pogroms of 1938, were ruled guilty of nothing more than “aggravated breach of the peace” by a court here and given jail terms of ten and fifteen months.
Schoppan, the Hitler youth leader of Usingen, dragged Julius Hirsch and his wife from their home and forced them to run the gauntlet of their fellow-townsmen. The orgy of beatings went on until Hirsch, a wounded veteran of the First World War, collapsed and until his wife’s wrist was broken by the blows.
Another local Jewish storekeeper, Carl Rosenthal, was beaten into unconsciousness on the street, then loaded into a wheelbarrow by his former schoolmate Steinmetz and dumped into the nearest river. Both the Hirsch family and Rosenthal later escaped to the United States. Their depositions were taken at the German Consulate in New York.
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.
