EFFECT OF SLANSKY TRIAL ON JEWS IN EAST GERMAN GOVERNMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00810A000600070011-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 10, 2002
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: March 1, 1953
• Content Type: REPORT

',OUNTRY
SUBJECT
PLACE
ACQUIRED
DATE OF
INFO.
SOURCE
25X1X
Approved For Release 2002/07/12 : CIA-RDP80-00810A000600070011-6
CLASSIFICATION SECRET
SECURITY INFORNATICU
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
FORMATION REPORT
East Germany
Effect of Slansk Trial on Jews in East
German Government
25X1A
25X1X
REPORT NO.
CD NO
DATE DISTR.
'oh 1953
- NO. OF PAGES 3
NO, OF ENCLS
LISTED BELOW)
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
I, li-AaDIATa aFTKMATH OF TH.L., .iLANSlif TRIAL
In source's opinion the officials in the 1st German Government who are most
endangered at present are those who are members of the so?called inplish and
Mexican emigrations?those who during the war sought refuge in Great Britain
or Mexico, The Mexican emigration is endaniered because it was made up mostly
of Jews and because its members were in close association with Paul Merker
After the hajk trial in Hungary and the Noel Field affairs the Merker affair
broke in Germany in 1950. Following the removal of terker from his post as
:tate Secretary for Agriculture, many members of the Mexican emigration were
interrogated by the Nast German police, As a result of these interrogations,
the Mexican emigration, which heretofore had been mostly in Burlin,was divided
and its members sent to differ.nt parts of Last Germany,
Since the Murker incident no member of the Mexican emigration has dared to
talk with any other.,
25X1A
2
Membershil in the 'corld
Jewish Communit?, Menorah, and the CoLitee Central lsraelita?an organization
of all Jews no matter what nationality in Mexico?was by implication particularly
condemned, Membership in Menorah was especially damaging because it later be
came affiliated with the oirld Jewish Congreas
3LaNSKY TRIAL: The Slans4 trial broke upon source with a shock of suddennesa
!along his acquaintances there was absolutely no discussion of the imnlieatlons
ILLEGIB
AcISIFICATIrIN
gEr.MIT
25X1A
Approved For Release 2002/07/12 : CIA-RDP80-00810A000600070011-6
5X1X
Approved For Release 2002/07/12 : CIA-RDP80-00810A000600070011-6
25X1A
SEURET
afraid to to be seen talking to each other hecaeoe there might tater be aceused
of having plotted together. The young ocope in the SD Aceepte4 the revel=
ations as just another trial. They had no eonnection. with the personalities
involved and no realization of the implications, There was some speculation
as to how someone as high as the secretaryeeeneral of a national communist
party could be guilty of such activity as that of which he was accused, but
this is as far as the speculation went.
e, The Slanski trial and the approaching purge e and arraignments in East Germany
are believed to be aimed at the liquidation of the group of officials who
advocated cooperation or who actually did work with the Allies during World
War II, All those who were for cooperation are to be eliminated, and the
new Mosceraterteutad . group is to be put in sole control of party and nation,
6. What is now going on within the NDP is definitely the beginning of a purge..
This purge, it is believed, may soon spread to other bourgeois parties, The
SED itself is in the preparatory stages of a cleaning out. Scapegoats will
be easy to find: For example, Merker? who could be blamed for the food
crisis and Willi Kreikaaeyer, formerly head of the Reichabahn? who could be
blamed for the chaotic transportation system,
II. micLugs Emiggaggl
7. Members of the Mexican emigration who are at present endangered in East
Germany include Ludwig Remo Alexander Abusoh, Erich Jungmann, In Mexico
Abuach lived in the same building as Andr?imon of the Prague trials
-
Remo Abusch) laorkero and others signed a declaration while they were in
Mexico stating that after the war Jews would have both Jewish and German
nationality- It is believed that were this declaration discovered, it
would certainly mean the: doom of those who signed it,
S. Immediately after the Prague trials Georg Krauss of Neues abiwADeus, who
had been that paperus correspondent at the trial, stated in a conversation
that in his opinion the whole business of the Mexican emigration had much
mere to it than could be seen on the surface and that it was definitely
mixed up with the whole international Jewish' Zionist plot, Krauss Laid
spaniel emphasis on the association of membere of the emigration wtth Andre
Simon.
9. Hann was President of the Free German Movement in Mexico He is not Jewish;
in spite of this he has been relegated to an unimportant post. Although he
is a well-known author in his own right, Renr is not being used by the SED_
10. Erich Jungmann was the secretary of the Mexican Free German Movement and
worked with Marker, He and Marker were the actual leading political figures
of the group, JUngmann was also demoted after the Marker affair, He is
believed to be in Potsdami,,where he is the editor of a newspaper or magazine.
JUngmann's wife is the sister of the wife of e;ron Erwin Kisch, the flying
repotter," nacho a Jew, has since died, but he was also a close friend of
Andre Simore,
11. Made Neumann at present in the East German judiciary, was a member of
Menorah in Meacico--en association of German-speaking Jews, She is the
daughter of Kurt Rosenfeld, who was Minister of justice in the Weimar Republic:,
Rosenfeld-was a member of SAP, as was Neunann, Hans Maims, a Jew, went to
Mexico in the same ship as Merkerfl Atter his return to the DDR 0 he became
an editor on Neves Deutschland. Following tha Field affair, however, he was
.exiled to Chemnitz,. He is a friend of Jungmann; his present whereabouts are
unknown,
12. Georg Stibi, formerly chief editor of the Berliner Zeitang, later became
deputy to Gerhard Eisler. He was fired from hie Job because of alleged
suspicious connections and was exiled to Dresden, In October 1952 Stibi
was reported to have been elected from theSOD- His present whereabouts
are likewise unknown,
snREr
Approved For Release 2002/07/12 : CIA-RDP80-00810A000600070011-6
14.
Approved For Release 2002/07/12 : CIA-RDP80-00810A000600070011-6
25X1A
shmiT
Oskar Hargun was fired from his HO Job and gAven a position in the eonsum
He wee later fired from this post and made head of an unimportant office
HO Sportwaren, While in the HO, he was associated with Paul Baender
III. GhliffIAL
Source knows of no Jews who emigrated to Moscow during the war end who now
hold high positions in East Germany Likewi4e source has no knowledge of
Jews who were in concentration camps duriag the war aid who now ho)d important
jobs,
15. Philipp Daub was in charge of the Cadre Sectien of the SED but was removed
in 1950 because he was a member or the Ameriean emigration and a Iriend of
Paul Herter, Otto Schoen now gives the ores in the Cadre Soctiona but
baton Joao is the man who actually gives them out Joos is about 43 but
looks about 60, He is himself a member of the West emigration.
16. All the members of the SED Central Committee live very withdrawn lives in the
Ghetto" in Pankow, They have no social life to speak of and spend most of
their time working,,
17. It is believed that there is now no contention between Grotewohl and Ulbricht
Formerly Grotewohl did have some ideas of his owna but he has long since
rapitulated to Ulbricht.
18. It is believed by leaders of the SAD that ratification of the contractual
egreements of the EDC cannot be stopped in West Germany by parliamentary
reansand therefore they are continually calling for mass action,
strikes, and other =parliamentary methods of blockiee the legal acceptance
of the agreements. It is believed that this is the reamen the BPD is being
attacked as betraying the working classeseebecauee the SPD refuses to sanctico
the use of extra?parliamentary moans of agitation against the agreement,
The SED will codinue to agitate even though it expecte ratification Source
does not believe that there will be a concerted campaign against the large
faemers (Groesbauern) because any such action would mean that the State
weld have to take charge of overseeing the farms, Ulbricht has stated that
no action will be taken against the Crossbauern as a class but only against
individuals who break the law
19. Rudolf Herrnetadt, who was with the Berliner Zeitm before becoming chief
editor of the Neuss Deglimae4v and Hermann Axon do not feel theaselves
threatened me a resat of the Slanedef trial el eaeueh etti Jews.
SECRET
Approved For Release 2002/07/12 : CIA-RDP80-00810A000600070011-6