Page 21 - Jewish Domination Of Weimar Germany 1919-1932

offices of the Social Democrat Reich Chancellor Bauer. In a unreserved support afforded them by the Social Democrats
letter signed by Secretary of State Abegg and addressed to and Communists with positions in the Berlin municipal offices
the Government Presidents in Osnabriick, Munster and permitted of their making a brilliant raid on the Berlin City
Bank. Their "red" protectors considered them to be "royal
Dusseldorf, in which they are directed to occasion no diffi-
culties to the Barmat family when they cross the frontier, merchants". The entire deliveries of clothing for the City
it was asserted that Barmat was a member of the Dutch of Berlin, the equipment of those in receipt of the dole, of
Legation. The Dutch Legation protested against this abso- the police and of the tramway and underground railway
officials were played into their hands. There was hardly one
lutely false statement.
Once in Germany, the Barmats were in no time the of the municipal officials who came within their reach, from
Chief Burgomaster Boss
owners of ten banks and of
downwards, who resisted and
a large number of indust-
escaped their bribery. They
rial undertakings. They had
were provided by the
unlimited credit with the all
Prussian State Bank, which Sklareks with evertything
from cheap outfits to fur-
led to the final collapse of
coats and full evening dress.
this concern with a loss of
At the Press Ball on the
between 60 and 70 million
26* January, 1929, the bro-
marks, about half of which
thers Sklarek spent no less
was due to credit granted to
than 3,604 marks and 70 pfen-
the Barmats.
nigs on entertaining the city
These big profiteers also
lived in gorgeous style. fathers.
But the city fathers did
Their Social Democratic pro-
tectors were regular guests not fail to make return for
this hospitality. Fictitious
at their princely banquets,
accounts were presented by
and on one occasion one of
the Sklareks to the communal
them, who was in full even-
City Bank and paid without
ing dress and absolutely
demur. When the Sklareks
drunk, fell into the water
suspended payment, the bank
after leaving the island of
had a loss of 12,500,000 marks;
Schwanenwerder and was
only fished out again with the whereabouts of other
assets to the value of between
difficulty.
six and ten million marks
The case in which these
swindlers were the accused could no longer be disco-
vered. In a report made to
ended, like the Sklarz cor-
Director General LudwigKatzenellenbogen, the Sklarek Committee of
ruption case, with quite
manager of the greatest breiureg business in Germany, was con- Inquiry of the Prussian Diet,
trifling terms of imprison-
demned to three months' imprisonment jor breach of trust in 1932, emphasis was laid on the fact
ment, in no relation to the
after he had hrougt the business to the verge of ruin that the Sklareks had with-
damage they had done. Ju-
lius (ludko) Barmat, whose term of imprisonment was not drawn 575,000 marks from the City Bank on the day before
their arrest. Municipal employees were supplied with suits
quite covered by the time he had spent in prison before trial
of clothes free of charge by the firm of Sklarek in order
who had done damage to the Reich to the extent of to render them amenable to their dirty plans. Othes members
38 0v>0000 marks and heartlessly ruined the existence of of the municipal staff received all sorts of personal advantages
numerous smaller men, was condemned to eleven months'
and even payments in cash through the Sklareks. At their
imprisonment in March, 1928. Bui in any case the discovery feasts, as was revealed by the evidence recorded during the
i'.icse criminal cases cost their well-wisher, the German
;•"
trial, champagne was drunk out of wine-coolers and caviare
l-'eiei: Chancellor Hermann Bauer, who had so far been a
eaten out of bowls.
blameless citizen, the office of Reich Chancellor.
In the meantime — the case was tried in 1932 — the
The case of the eastern Jews Ivan and Alexander Kutisker
wrath of the people had risen so high that the guilty parties
and Michael Hotzmann was a second-class affair, because
were dealt with considerably more severely. The trial itself
the "heroes"' had not worked quite so successfully. They lasted for nine months. Leo and Willy Sklarek were each
had only received such a "small" portion of the usual condemned to four years' penal servitude, with the loss oi
"business ability" of their race from their stepmother Nature,
their civil rights for five years, the period spent in prison
hat they had to content themselves with swindling the
before conviction being deducted from the sentence.
Prussian State Bank out of the modest sum of "only" to
Moreover, Henry Barmat, who had then migrated
14,000,000 gold marks. Holland, had made himself so disliket there that he received
A very big case, especially owing to its extent and
an order to leave the country in May, 1933.
profundity and the especially infernal stench of the mire of
But the Sklarek case was by no means the last of the
corruption discovered on this occasion, was that of the three Jewish corruption cases. Much attention was attracted by
brothers Leo, Max and Willy Sklarek. The unlimited and
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