Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

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Der Stürmer addressed the masses on the subject of ‘The True Face of the Jew.’ 142
Voss testified on 18 June 1935 to a closed court. Only Nazi hierarchy, Chief
Editor Holz, photographers and those directly involved in the proceedings were
present.
After two days of deliberation, on 19 June 1935 Hirschland was declared a
dangerous and habitual criminal and found guilty of five counts of illicit sexual
acts with female students. He was sentenced to a total of ten years’ imprisonment
and ten years’ loss of civil rights in preventative detention. 143 It is not known what
became of Hirschland and it can only be assumed that he died in prison. 144 For
Hirschland the case ended with his incarceration, but, for those Jews associated
with the defendant ramifications were to follow.
Both local newspapers the Magdeburgische Zeitung and Die Mitteldeutsche
Zeitung reported accounts of the proceedings of the two days, together with the
verdict. 145 The former had, in its sensationalistic account of Hirschland’s
misdeeds, included the fiction that Voss had made his apartment available to
Hirschland for the purposes of mass orgies. 146 Voss was dismissed from his
position at the shoe store and was informed by friends that he should leave
Magdeburg immediately as the police were seeking him. Even though Voss had
committed no crime, he knew, as a Jew, that this detail was irrelevant and he
escaped. After travelling from place to place, he finally lodged with his nephew in
142 Fritz Voss, Sensationsprozess ‘Rassenschänder Hirschland’, 21. Oktober 1935,
Collection 0.2, File 1079, YVA, op. cit., p. 2.
143 Correspondence to the Oberlandesgerichtspräsidenten in Naumburg a/S, 22 June
1935, Bestand Rep. C 128, Signatur Nr. 81, LHASA MD, op. cit., p. 153.
144 Spector, ed., op. cit., p. 782.
145 Newspaper reports on the Hirschland case, Magdeburg, 19-20 June 1935,
Collection RG-11.00M.31, Reel 130, File 721-1-2845, USHMMA, op. cit., pp. 412–
423.
146 Fritz Voss, Sensationsprozess ‘Rassenschänder Hirschland’, 21. Oktober 1935,
Collection 0.2, File 1079, YVA, op. cit., p. 2.