Severe Thrashing

Waikato Times, Volume 123, Issue 20693, 31 December 1938, Page 7

Severe Thrashing

MINISTER ATTACKED DR. GOEBBELS SURPRISED ATTENTIONS TO ACTRESS (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) NEW YORK, Dec. 29 American newspapers are giving prominence to stories from | two sources that Dr. Paul Goebbcls, Nazi Minister of Propaganda, went into hospital on December 22 suffering the effects of a severe thrashing and not because of influenza. It was stated on December 27 that he was in bed and was being attended by several doctors. The details given in the stories of the alleged thrashing differ, but the accounts agree that it was the result ! of his attention to a beautiful actress, Lida Baarova. One account stales that friends of Frau Baarova’s husband—an actor, Gustav Froelich, who was sent to a concentration camp in October after challenging Dr. Goebbels owing to the latter’s attentions to his wife—sur-

prised Dr. Goebbels in Herr Froelich

flat at night, and that only the intervention of Dr. Goebbels’ chauffeur saved his life. The other account states that Dr. Goebbels was waylaid outside the flat. Wife Decided on Divorce It is Dr. Goebbels’ duty to report on the qualifications and eligibility of all actresses seeking work in Germany. According to both accounts, Frau Goebbels some months ago was so displeased at “the undue time that passed in deciding Frau Baaroca’s qualifications” that she decided upon a divorce, but Herr Hitler acted as peacemaker. The latest episode is reported to have decided her upon proceeding with the divorce. It is stated that Herr Froelich had nursed a hatred for Dr. Goebbels since 1934, when he was exiled from Germany because his first wife, the singer and film star, Gitta Alpar, was a Hungarian rabbi’s daughter. The couple were divorced in 1935 so that Herr Froelich could return to Germany. The Gitta Alpar mentioned was in New Zealand some years ago, when owing to the sudden death of her first husband, she was left in straitened circumstances, and musical people gave her benefit concerts, one being held in Hamilton. She was thus enabled to return to Hungary where she became a film star.