Grand Jury Continues Its Probe of Spanknoebel Activities; Search Extended

While federal agents yesterday extended their search for Heinz Spanknoebel, Hitlerite agent who has been missing since a warrant was issued for his arrest last week, the Federal Grand Jury pursued its examination of several German-Americans with a view to uncovering Spanknoebel’s associates.

Dr. I. T. Griebl, resigned president of the League of Friends of New Germany, took the stand yesterday before the federal body where he was further interrogated on the activities of the missing Nazi agent. United States Attorney George Z. Medalie revealed that investigation of a letter written to Griebl last Sunday in New York proved it to be in the handwriting of Spanknoebel.

“All of which proves,” the district attorney later told the press, “that Spanknoebel was in the country Sunday if Griebl is telling the truth.”

Little more could be learned about the whereabouts of the apparition-like Nazi agent at the time of the hearing yesterday. Various reports that Spanknoebel had remained in New York, where he is still in hiding, that he had fled over the border to Canada, and that he had gone to remote cities could not be substantiated.

Griebl admitted that he had taken dinner with Spanknoebel on Friday night. Spanknoebel, Dr. Griebl said, had been sharing his apartment. “When Spanknoebel announced that a warrant had been issued for his arrest I naturally ordered him to leave my home—which he did,” Dr. Griebl said.

Also called to the witness stand yesterday was Carl Heinz Imhoff, manager of Amerikas Deutsche Post, a periodical written in English and German which is regarded as a medium for Nazi sentiment.

Although they were not called upon for testimony, Colonel Edwin Emerson, correspondent for German newspapers and founder of the Friends of Germany organization, Severin Winterscheidt, Secretary of the Friends of New Germany, and Carl Nicolai, chairman of the United German Societies, were present yesterday at the Federal Building where the investigation is being held.

LEAGUE CHARTER UNTRACED

The New York State Attorney General’s Office revealed yesterday that efforts to locate the corporation charter of the League of Friends of New Germany have thus far failed. Neither the State Department nor the County Clerk’s office have records of the league’s incorporation.

Julius Hochfelder, who asked the investigation in the interests of the Jewish War Veterans, expressed the view that the organization might have incorporated under another name. “If they have,” he said, “we shall get the names of the members, trace their activities, and if they are found to be anti-Semitic or anti-American they shall be prosecuted. If the league has not registered it is still amenable to criminal proceedings for having a membership without reporting it to the authorities.”