THE REICHSTAG FIRE

Evening Star, Issue 21519, 18 September 1933, Page 8

THE REICHSTAG FIRE

UNOFFICIAL INQUIRY EVIDENCE HEARD IN LONDON Press Association—By Telegfl^h —Copyright LONDON, September IG. Herr Bernhardt, ex-editor of the ‘ Vossicbe Zeituug,’ declares that Von Schleicher, when he was Chancellor,meant to govern without a Reichstag, and was preparing for a Socialist empire under the Hohenzollerns. The trades unions’ allegations that the Communists were responsible for the lire was based on fairy tales. Only, Nazis could benefit by incendiarism. The Government by accusing Communists was able to exclude them from the Reichstag, which was a flagrant breach of the Constitution. Herr Torgler, who w T as an intelligent political authority, would never commit the folly of burning the Reichstag building. The hearing was adjourned. DEFENDING COUNSEL PRESENT LONDON, September 16, Dr Sachs, who will defend Herr Torgler at Leipzig, is a most interesting figure at the . Reichstag building fire inquiry. He listened attentively to the statements in search of useful evidence, Herr Grzeshinsky, a pre-Hitler police chief, detailed the methods of securing police reinforcements at critical junctures. COMMUNISTS DENY RESPONSIBILITY LONDON, September 17, Giving evidence at the Reichstag in-, quiry, Wilhelm Koenen, secretary of the Communist Party in February, said he was. almost continuously in Herr Torgler’s company on the evening of the fire. They left the Reichstag at 9.30 p.m., and were sitting in an adjacent restaurant at 10 p.m. when the waiter shouted that the Reichstag was ablaze. Witness and Torgler were utterly, astounded. Torgler exclaimed: “For God’s sake we must find out what’s at the back of this.” Koenen denied the existence of documents incriminating the Communists -or that they started fires in order to begin a revolution. [The burning of the German Reichstag building ■ is being investigated in London by a self-appointed commission of jurists from the United States of America, Sweden, France, .En'gk-nd,-Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, and Holland. The commission is not a court in any sense and has no official standing. It has been established by various people interested in the cause of justice who are anxious that the trial at Leipzig shall not proceed without assistance being put forward on behalf of the accused.]