Charges that Theodor Oberlander, West Germany’s Minister for Expellees and War Victims, had been active in Hitlerian racist activities were printed here today in Der Spiegel, one of the leading news magazines in West Germany.
Dr. Oberlaendar had been accused by leftist newspapers published in East Germany of the mass murder of Polish intellectuals and Jews in Lwow, Poland, during the summer of 1941. Der Spiegel today reveals that he was affiliated with the psychological warfare section of Hitler’s SS and SA units, and was the author of articles calling upon “racially superior” Germans to fight against “inferior” Slavs and Jews.
(At Tel Aviv, today, Moshe Reiss, a Jewish survivor of the Nazi Ghetto in Lwow, told newspapers that Oberlaender had several hundred Jews, including rabbis, killed during the first few days of Germany’s occupation of Lwow. Later, he said, “many thousands of Jews were rounded up, and 5,000 were killed near Lwow. Those actions took place under Oberlaender’s orders. I am shocked to hear that he denies these facts now,” Mr. Reiss stated, adding that he is willing “to go anywhere to testify to these facts under oath.”
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.
