Bavarian Finance Minister Zorn has informed the state cabinet that Dr. Philip Auerbach has been suspended as head of the Bavarian State Restitution Office pending an investigation into the affairs of the office. To date, he said, the public prosecutor, who is conducting the investigation, has found no criminal evidence.
Action against Dr. Auerbach followed published charges of embezzlement and also that while a prisoner of the Nazis in the Auschwitz concentration camp, he secured preferential treatment for himself and was guilty of beating other prisoners.
Auerbach has brought a libel suit against Heinrich Junker, a Christian Democratic member of the Bavarian Parliament for declaring publicly that he had embezzled funds of the restitution office. He has also filed suit against Fritz Hollstein, editor of “Die Tat” for making the concentration camp charges.
(In Brussels, the Belgian Attorney General was reported to have invited Belgian Jews who had been interned in the Gross-Rosen concentration camp to come forward to give evidence about the activities of Dr. Philip Auerbach, Bavarian restitution office head, during his internment at that camp. He reportedly was acting at the request of the Bavarian authorities.)
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.
