HUNT FOR STRASSER

Evening Star, Issue 23650, 9 August 1940, Page 12

HUNT FOR STRASSER

GESTAPO STILL AT WORK f , HITLER'S CHIEF ENEMY Tho long arm of the Gestapo, it is reported in an American Associated Press message from Berlin, has reached out to discover the hiding place of two of the men whom tho Nazis hate most. They are Otto Strasser, leader of the so-called “ Black Front,” and Hcrschel Grynszpan, a Jewish-Polish youth. Of tho two, Strasser is the more important politically, Grynszpan of the more significance historically up to now. Strasser is tho main opponent of Hitler inside Germany. Grynszpan is tho youth whose murder of Ernst von Rath, tho third secretary of the German Embassy in Paris, in November. 1938, led to the terrible Jewish purge in Germany which shocked the world. Strasser served in the World War though ho was not 17 years old when it began. He volunteered and was drafted to the Fourth Artillery Regiment, won the Iron Cross for his role in capturing a British battery, and was promoted lieutenant. Sick and crippled with sciatica after tho war, he worked for a degree at Munich University. In 1925 he joined the National Socialist Party, in which his brother Gregor was already a'regional leader. Five years later Strasser the Socialist, seeing through the shams of Hitler the “ National Socialist,” left the party. But he formed his Black (“ black ” here means “secret ”) Front, gathered round him the true Socialists in the ranks, of the Brown Shirts, and worked for the day when Hitler should betray his promises. From that time his war with Hitler has been continuous. FLIGHT TO THURINGIA. When the Nazis burnt the Reichstag in February, 1933, Strasser fled to a secret rendezvous in Thuringia, for he knew that the terror would be unleashed that night. But he discovered that one of his followers had been tortured into revealing his hiding-place, and again he fled. From that day he began a game of deadly hide and seek with the Nazis, and finally crossed into Austria. Gregor Strasser, who trusted Hitler, was murdered by Hitler’s men. In Vienna Otto Strasser carried on his work. The Black Front extended to Austria, and his newspaper, ‘ Der Schwarze Sender ’ (‘ The Black Broadcaster’), was smuggled over the frontier into the Reich. In Vienna, however, the Nazis tried to kidnap him, but found that he had gone to Czechoslovakia, which he was prospecting in case of a German march into Austria. Learning of tho raid on his flat he at once fled to Prague, and began his war over again. WORKED AMONG CZECHS FOR YEARS. In Prague, among the Czechs who were no admirers of Hitler,- he felt safe, and the work of sending propaganda to the Reich was resumed. Germans helped him in the .task. He used envelopes of the German Medical Association to carry 50,000 copies of one .pamphlet, the envelopes not even being sealed, and once he used copies of the stationery of the German Jurists’ , Association for the same purpose. A third device was the use of labels no bigger than a postage stamp which declared “The Black Front will oust Hitler.” In 1934 came another dramatic development. With Rudolph Eormis, an excellent radio engineer and a close friend, ho established a secret, radio station at Zahori, a week-end inn 40 miles from Prague. From here three transmissions an hour were given. The station was in Formis’s bedroom in the loft of the inn. DISCOVERY BY GESTAPO. But by January, 1935, the Gestapo had run tho station down. A pair’ of German lovers visited the inn, a business man and a beautiful blonde girl. It is not known what happened after this, but it is declared that after Formis was photographed with the girl her “ lover ” flew back to Berlin with the picture, to make sure that this was the right man, and the folowing night Formis was murdered, and the girl, whether by accident or by reason of the fact that Formis tried to defend himself, was also dead. Strasser worked on in Prague for another two years. Then Hitler came. While the armies were moving forward into the occupied zones, Strasser, in an aeroplane, was passing overhead towards Switzerland. BLAMED FOR MUNICH EXPLOSION. A few weeks after tho outbreak of war came tho bomb explosion in the Munich beer hall, which the Nazis declared had been engineered by two British secret service men and by Otto Strasser, “ whoso Secret Sender was destroyed on January 26, 1935, by two SS leaders in execution of their orders.” Strasser replied that the bomb bad been planted by the 'Nazis themselves for purposes of propaganda against Britain. It was in Paris that Strasser next continued bis work. He hoped for military setbacks which would strengthen the Black Front and give it a chance to take more active steps against the Hitler regime. He is reported to have feared a deal with the Germans for the deposition of Hitler and tho enthronement of Goering in his stead. HOPES FOR OVERTHROW. But his ultimate faith has been in tho overthrow of tho Nazi regime by men of social conscience, some from the National Socialist ranks and some from the ranks of tho workers—in fact, his own Black Front. Grynszpan, it is almost forgotten now, kept pestering the German Embassy in, Paris two years ago because he wanted to see Hie Ambassador. He had no success, but managed to see the Third Secretary, von Rath. It is not. clear what happened then; quite possibly he was taunted or abused, but he pulled out a pistol and shot von Rath. BRUTAL PROGROM. Tiie result was an appalling outbreak of vindictiveness in Germany, some of it directed against the helpless and old and weak, all of it a deliberate policy of oppression of the Jews. Even Germans were sickened, and confessed to foreign residents that they were distressed by this brutality. A heavy fine was levied on the Jews, and it later became rather ominously clear that the preparations for some of the attacks had been made in advance of the murder. Von Rath was given a funeral attended by Nazi leaders and replete with flowers. Jewish women and children were driven into the streets. The chorus of world condemnation was powerful, and the United States summoned its Ambassador home and has not had one in Germany since.

On July 26 last year Gryuszpan underwent bis bast questioning by a magistrate before his trial, and testi-

fied that bo never intended to kill von Rath. A fow weeks later Eurpoe was at war and be sought bis release to fight against Germany. It was refused.