Berthold Jacob, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Berthold Jacob

German journalist

Date of Birth: 12-Dec-1898

Place of Birth: Lisbon, Lisbon District, Portugal

Date of Death: 26-Feb-1944

Profession: journalist, pacifist

Nationality: Germany

Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius


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About Berthold Jacob

  • Berthold Jacob (12 December 1898 Lisbon – 26 February 1944 Berlin) was a German journalist and pacifist. Jacob experienced the First World War whilst serving on the western front in 1918.
  • This led him to become a pacifist.
  • He went on to become a radical critic of German militarism writing articles about German secret rearmament and the Feme murders.
  • From 1923 he wrote a series of articles for Die Weltbühne under the pseudonym "Old Soldier".
  • However, in 1928 he was prosecuted for treason and sentenced to nine months imprisonment. Jacob left Germany for Strasbourg 1932.
  • Here he set up an independent press service.
  • However having been enticed to Basle by the undercover Gestapo agent Hans Wesemann, Jacob was kidnapped in March 1935.
  • Jacob had known Wesemann for some time and had indeed served as best man at Wesemann's wedding.
  • Wesemann was subsequently sentenced to three years in jail for the kidnapping.
  • This was investigated by the Swiss police officer Anton Ganz, who went to London to interview such people as Dora Fabian and Karl Korsch.
  • The subsequent death of Fabian alongside her friend Mathilde Wurm led to concern that they had been murdered rather than the suicide which was the verdict of the coroner's court.
  • This contributed to the climate of opinion which led to a successful campaign for his release from Germany.
  • This campaign was based on Swiss diplomatic pressure and German exile protests.Upon his return to Switzerland he was deported to France.
  • Here he continued his work until the outbreak of the Second world War.
  • He was interned with his wife in the south of France in 1939/40.
  • However they managed to escape from Marseille travelling to Portugal in 1941.
  • Jacob was one of the refugees aided by Varian Fry.
  • However Jacob was once again kidnapped in Lisbon by the nazis and held in the Gestapo prison at Prinz Albrecht Strasse, Berlin.
  • Owing to the harsh treatment he endured Berthold Jacob died in the Berlin Jewish Hospital on February 26, 1944.

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