Berthold Jacob (12 December 1898 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

– 26 February 1944 in Berlin) was a German journalist and pacifist during the Interwar period.

Biography

Jacob was born into a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

, on 12 December 1898, the son of art salesman and silk manufacturer David Jacob. He served on the Western Front in 1918 during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, which led him to become a pacifist. He became a journalist in 1920, and went on to become a radical critic of

German militarism Militarism is the belief or the desire of a government or a people that a state should maintain a strong military capability and to use it aggressively to expand national interests and/or values. It may also imply the glorification of the mili ...

, writing articles about German secret rearmament and the

Feme murders The Feme ('fā-mə) murders (German: ) were a series of politically motivated murders in Weimar Germany from 1919 to 1923 that were committed by elements of the German far right against political opponents they considered treasonous. The practice ...

. From 1925 to 1928 he wrote a series of articles for ''

Die Weltbühne ''Die Weltbühne'' (‘The World Stage’) was a German weekly magazine for politics, art and the economy. It was founded in Berlin in 1905 as (‘The Theater’) by Siegfried Jacobsohn and was originally a theater magazine only. In 1913 it be ...

'' under the pseudonym "Old Soldier". In 1928, Jacob was prosecuted for treason and imprisoned until 1929. He joined the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

in 1928, but later moved to the Socialist Workers' Party upon its foundation in 1931. Jacob left Germany for Strasbourg in 1932, where he set up an independent press service, and was stripped of his German citizenship the following year. Having been enticed to

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

, Switzerland, by undercover

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

agent

Hans Wesemann Hans Wesemann (27 November 1895, Nienburg on the Weser – 23 October 1971, Caracas) was a German journalist and Gestapo agent. Early life Wesemann was born into the family of Fritz Wesemann and his wife Margarethe Hars. He lived with them and hi ...

, Jacob was kidnapped on 9 March 1935 and taken across the

German-Swiss border The German-speaking part of Switzerland (german: Deutschschweiz, french: Suisse alémanique, it, Svizzera tedesca, rm, Svizra tudestga) comprises about 65 percent of Switzerland (North Western Switzerland, Eastern Switzerland, Central Switz ...

Weil am Rhein Weil am Rhein (High Alemannic: ''Wiil am Rhii'') is a German town and commune. It is on the east bank of the River Rhine, and extends to the point at which the Swiss, French and German borders meet. It is the most southwesterly town in Germany an ...

. He had known Wesemann for some time and had served as best man at Wesemann's wedding. Wesemann was later sentenced to three years in jail for the kidnapping. The case was investigated by Swiss police officer Anton Ganz, who went to London to interview such people as

Dora Fabian Dora Fabian (née Heinemann; 1901– 31 March or 1 April 1935) was a German socialist and anti-Nazi activist. She was the daughter of Else Levy Heinemann and Hugo Heinemann, a socialist lawyer who defended trade unionists and political activists i ...

and Karl Korsch. The subsequent death of Fabian alongside her friend Mathilde Wurm led to concern that they had been murdered rather than committed suicide which was the verdict of the coroner's court. This contributed to the climate of opinion which led to a successful campaign for Jacob's release from

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. This campaign was based on Swiss diplomatic pressure on the German government and German exile protests. Upon being returned to Switzerland in September 1935, Jacob was deported to France. Here, he continued his work until the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. He was interned with his wife in Southern France between 1939 and 1940, and attempted unsuccessfully to acquire a

visa Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...

for the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. They managed to escape from

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

, travelling to Portugal in 1941. Jacob was one of the refugees aided by

Varian Fry Varian Mackey Fry (October 15, 1907 – September 13, 1967) was an American journalist. Fry ran a rescue network in Vichy France that helped approximately 2,000 to 4,000 anti-Nazi and Jewish refugees to escape Nazi Germany and the Holocaust ...

."Some of the 2,000 people assisted by Varian Fry and the Emergency Rescue Committee."
Varian Fry Institute, 12 February 2008. Retrieved 31 December 2017. However, he was once again kidnapped by the Gestapo in Lisbon and held in the Gestapo prison at Prinz-Albrecht-Straße, Berlin. Owing to the harsh treatment he endured, Jacob died in the Berlin Jewish Hospital on 26 February 1944.

Works

* 1925: ''Weissbuch über die Schwarze Reichswehr'' (with

Emil Julius Gumbel Emil Julius Gumbel (18 July 1891, in Munich – 10 September 1966, in New York City) was a German mathematician and political writer. Gumbel specialised in mathematical statistics and, along with Leonard Tippett and Ronald Fisher, was instrument ...

) Berlin: Verlag der Neuen Gesellschaft, * 1925: ''Deutschlands geheime Rüstungen?'' Berlin: Verlag der Neuen Gesellschaft * 1929: ''Verräter verfallen der Feme: Opfer, Mörder, Richter 1919–1929'' (with Emil Julius Gumbel, Ernst Falck) Berlin: Malik * 1934: ''Die Hindenburg-Legende.'' Verlag La République, Strasbourg * 1934: ''Wer? Aus dem Arsenal der Reichstagsbrandstifter.'' Strasbourg * 1934: ''Memoiren des Stabschefs Röhm.'' (Anonymous) Strasbourg * 1936: ''Das neue deutsche Heer und seine Führer: Mit einer Rangliste des deutschen Heeres und Dienstaltersliste (nach dem Stande von Mitte August 1936).'' * 1936: ''Warum schweigt die Welt?'' (with contributions from

Carl von Ossietzky Carl von Ossietzky (; 3 October 1889 – 4 May 1938) was a German journalist and pacifist. He was the recipient of the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in exposing the clandestine German re-armament. As editor-in-chief of the magazine ''Die ...

, Georg Bernhard, Wolf Franck, Jack Iwo, Alfred Kantorowicz,

Rudolf Leonhard Rudolf Leonhard (27 October 1889, in Lissa, German Empire (today Leszno, Poland) – 19 December 1953, in East Berlin) was a German author and communist activist. Life Leonhard came from a family of lawyers and studied law and Philology in Berli ...

, Paul Westheim) Paris: Éditions du Phénix * 1937: ''Weltbürger Ossietzky. Ein Abriss seines Werkes'' (with a biography of Ossietzkys, and foreword by Wickham Steed) Paris: Éditions du Carrefour

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jacob, Berthold 1898 births 1944 deaths German pacifists German Jews who died in the Holocaust People from Berlin German non-fiction writers 20th-century German journalists German Jewish military personnel of World War I Journalists from Berlin Jewish journalists Jewish pacifists

Biography

Works

See also

References

External links