EMBEZZLEMENT CHARGE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 77, 28 February 1938, Page 9

EMBEZZLEMENT CHARGE.

HERR OSSIETSKY’S PRIZE. £3OOO FOR SWEETHEART. Received February 28, 8.5 a.m. BERLIN, Feb. 25. A former cavalry officer and lawyer, Kurt Wanow, was charged to-day with embezzling £6600 of Herr Ossietsky s Nobel Prize of £BOOO (£7000). Wanow admitted that he handed over £3OOO to his 16-year-old sweetheart to invest in a cinema. A cablegram from London in November, 1936, announced that Herr Carl von Ossietsky, a German pacifist, had been awarded the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize of £7OOO, which was given as the real reason why he had been released a few days previously after being imprisoned for three years in a concentration camp. After his release Her Ossietsy went into a private hospital at Meclenburg. having contracted tuberculosis in the prison camp. Dr Sahm, German Minister at Oslo, commented that the decision to award the prize to Ossietsky “must be regarded as a deliberate demonstration against Germany.” Official comment later was that it was a shameless provocation and insult to the new Germany that the prize had been awarded to a notorious traitor, and that a clear answer would follow. Protests were also received from descendants of Alfred Nobel. On January 16, 1937, it was announced from "Oslo that the police had seized the passport of an attractive brunette. Frau Kreutzberger, who had presented an order for Her Ossietsky’s pize and had declared that she was acting on behalf of a Berlin lawyer Herr Wanow. A newspaper allegation was that Frau Kreutzberger was an agent of the German secret police. Later cables stated that the woman was the secretary of a Berlin solicitor who was acting as proxy for Herr Ossietsy and that the money had been handed over to her.