Paul Josef Schoenen, the German youth who touched off a worldwide spate of anti-Semitic incidents last Christmas Eve when he desecrated the Cologne synagogue, is still in Jail here today despite reports yesterday that he was released for lack of evidence on charges of daubing swastikas and anti-Jewish inscriptions last weekend on buildings here.
Together with Willi Michael, another German youth, Schoenen was arrested Monday, less than two months after he finished serving a Jail sentence for last year’s incident. The examining magistrate today rejected a request that the two youths be released.
The Cologne prosecution office told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that there was no indication that the swastika daubing last weekend was part of a plan to celebrate the anniversary of last year’s Christmas Eve synagogue desecration with a second swastika campaign. A spokesman for the prosecution office said he thought the timing of the incident “was merely coincidental.”
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.
