NOT A JEWISH SACRIFICE

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1507, 17 January 1901, Page 13

NOT A JEWISH SACRIFICE

VIENNA, Nov. 14. One of the most remarkable murder trials recorded in Austria-Hungary has just concluded at Pisek, Bohemia, where a- wandering Jew, Leopold Huelsner, was tc-day sentenced to death. Huelsner, who is only a poor wandering pedlar, has for two years been the central figure in a bitter conflict between the Anti-Semite party and the Jews. Two hundred! ancl eighty witnesses had been called, and during the progress of the case a hotel has been built in Pis ok for the accommodation of over 3t)o newspaper correspondents, whose labours have also involved the establishment of a new telegraph office. The conflict arose over the murder of a country girl in July, 1898, in the Berezina. forests. Huelsner, as the last person seen with her, was arrested. A political campaign was on at the time, and the’Anti-Semites seised Huelsner as a weapon with which to belabour the rest of the Jews.- They alleged that tire murder was done for Jewish ritual purposes, as the Pisek synagogue needed Christian blood. Hv.-elsn.er, having been found guiicy of murder, made a "confession” on these lines, involving two other Jews. The hubbub was net stilled when these two men proved their innocence. On the contrary, the 'murder of another giri was charged against Htaelsner, and once again the 'battle of AntiSemitism raged. Dr Baxa, an AntiSemite leader, assisted the prosecution, while for the defence medical experts from Prague and Vienna were called to prove that the crime was of the “psychopathological” order. Huelsner has been condemned, but the Anti-Semites have lost their case. The jury adopted the ‘‘psycho-padialog-ical” view of the crime.