Foreign Minister Knut B. Andersen said here that a Danish visa is awaiting Leopold Trepper at the Danish Embassy in Warsaw should Polish authorities grant the former Soviet master spy permission to leave Poland. Andersen said that Denmark regards the Trepper case as a matter of “human rights.”
“The Danish government has much sympathy for the endeavors of the Trepper family to be reunited,” he said. “In accordance with normal Danish rules for bringing families together, the Danish Embassy in Warsaw has been authorized to issue an entry visa for Denmark.” Trepper, who headed the “Red Orchestra,” the Soviet espionage organization in Western Europe during World War II, has been repeatedly refused an exit visa by Polish authorities on grounds that he might divulge state secrets.
In a letter released yesterday in Paris, Trepper threatened suicide should the Polish authorities not permit him to leave in the next 15 days. Trepper wrote in the letter, dated Sept. 26, he would go on a hunger strike that “will end either in my departure from Poland or by my death. I can no longer lead the life of a prisoner.”
He said that his suicide would be an “act of humanity” toward his family. “My present situation is hell for them and they are entitled to a normal existence,” he wrote. He described his life in Warsaw as being under constant surveillance. “I am vegetating, not living. The nervous tension to which I am subjected has become unbearable,” he said.
NEWS BRIEFS
Yaacov Tsur, the chairman of the Jewish National Fund in Israel, will head his country’s delegation to the inauguration of Juan Peron in Argentina next Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry announced today. Tsur was Israel’s first Ambassador to Argentina during the early fifties and established warm personal ties with Peron which he maintained during the Argentinian leader’s long exile. Earlier this year, after Peron’s re-election, Tsur flew to Madrid to meet with him. He reported back to the Cabinet that Peron’s sympathetic attitude to Jews and Israel remained staunch. Israel Ambassador Eliezer Doron will also take part in the inauguration celebrations.
The office of West Germany’s President categorically denied today a Czech newspaper report that President Gustay Heinemann had asked his law firm to undertake the defense of Ernst Gerke, former Gestapo head in Prague, who is under investigation in West Germany for possible war crimes. The newspaper, Vecerni Praha; named the law firm of Heinemann and Posser in Essen which is owned jointly by Heinemann and North Rhine-Westphalia Justice Minister Diether Posser. A statement issued by Heinemann’s office said that since 1969, when he was elected, the President has had nothing to do with his legal practice. Posser acknowledged today that it was his decision to take up the defense of Gerke.
The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot acknowledged today that it was in financial difficulties and said it would seek increased contributions from abroad to prevent a curtailment of its research work. The difficulties were attributed mainly to recent monetary changes abroad that made imported materials more expensive, and rising living costs in Israel. The decision to seek larger contributions outside Israel was made at a meeting of the Institute’s executive headed by Deputy Finance Minister Zevi Dienstein.
According to Jewish sources in the Soviet Union four Minsk Jewish activists, Lev Ositcher, Naum Olshansky, Yefim Davidovich, and Solomon Goldin, have informed the Minister of the Interior of the Soviet Byelorussian Republic that they would demonstrate every day, displaying placards and the yellow Star of David until the ovir issued them with exit visas, or explained why they should not exercise their right to leave the Soviet Union for Israel. Col. Ositcher is a Red Army hero, holder of many decorations, who had his pension cancelled when he applied for an exit visa.
Israel and West Germany signed an agreement this week for a DM 140 million German loan for civil construction and other projects in Israel. The loan will be used to cover housing telecommunications, industrial development and infrastructure projects, some of which have received financial support in the past. The DM 140 million loans have been granted annually, after negotiations, in past years. The current agreement was signed by Israel’s Ambassador in Bonn, Eliashiv Ben Horin.
There will be no Daily News Bulletin Oct. 8 due to Columbus Day.
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.
