Otto Schick, Former editor of the Jewish telegraphic Agency in Berlin and later in London, died here today following a heart attack, He was 61 years old.
Born in Vienna, he was graduated from the University of Vienna and served as an officer in the Austrian Army during World War I. He spent the war years at the battlefront and was decorated for bravery. In 1928 he joined the staff of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and was stationed in Bucharest as its correspondent.
From Bucharest he was later transferred to the JTA office in Berlin as assistant editor. In 1933, after Hitter’s event to power, he became head of the JTA Berlin Bureau and, in constant personal danger, published a daily news bulletin in the German language for distribution in the Jewish communities, thus keeping the Jews under the Nazi regime posted on developments throughout the Jewish world.
He was arrested in 1955 by the Gestapo but was soon released, following intervention by the American Embassy, and continued the publication of the JTA daily news bulletin in Berlin. In 1938 he was again arrested by the Nazi authorities but was freed on condition that he leave Germany. He was transferred to Vienna and was JTA correspondent in that city at the time of the Anschluss. He was then transferred to Lend on where he became head of the JTA London Bureau, serving in that post throughout the war. In 1950 he resigned to become head of the London Jewish Chronicle News Service.
An active Zionist since his student days, Mr. Schick was one of the organizers of the Blue-White Zionist youth movement in Vienna together with the late Jacob Landau, founder of the JTA. He was considered on of the best speakers in the Blue-White movement. He is survived by his widow, Laura, a son and two daughters.
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.
