The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1935-02-09
SISTER FIGHTS
To SAVE NAME
Of F|SCH
BY ADELA ROGERS ST. JOHNS
(COpyriEht 1885, by International News
Seryice)


rebuttal witnesses under the
dynamic generalship of David
WilentZ, move to their final vol
ley. But all the time I keep
seeing Hannah FiSch up there on
the witness stand, where she sat
and testified, speaking another
tongue, yet somehow making us
understand, even though the
words came to us through an
interpreter.
Hannah Fisch is the real live,
flesh-and-blood sister Of that most
mysterious and ghostly figure, 1Sa-
dor Fisch.
1t seemed strange just at first
to realize that Isador Fisch had q
sister.
A Phantom Figure
Throughout this trial Isador
F1sch has been phantom, haunt
ing the court room, appearing in
bursts of fire, in dread accusation,
in strange places. We have seen
his picture-held up first by one
lawyer and then another-placed
In the hands of many witnesses.
"WaS this the man"
did you ever see this man"
"WaS this the man who
jumped over the cemetery wall,
who boarded the street car, who
drove dark sedan"
did you know ISadOr FiSch?"
We have seen his picture,
strange little man, dark and
haggard, with death already
stamped upon him, and his name
has been as familiar to us as
our own hands and hair, as the
weeks have piled upon weeks in
the Hauptmann trial.
1Sador FiSch.
Hauptmann'S Friend
The man who was Bruno
Hauptmann's dearest and best
loved friend, according to his
own admitted handwriting, and
whom he yet swore to the police
planted the bloody Lindbergh
ransom money upon him.
The man the defense has
stated and implied as the brains
back Of the Lindbergh kidnapping,
the master mind who used poor,
ignorant Bruno Hauptmann as
an unsuspecting fence" for his
guilty gold, who initiated Bruno
Hauptmann'S handwriting in the
ransom notes, who planned the
foul murder and tried to leave
Hauptmann holding the bag for
1t when he returned to Germany
In 1888.
But never until we had Hanah
FiSch on the witness stand before
us in the court room, speaking in
beautiful and cultured German,
did we realize that this phantom
figure, this dead man so long &C
cused, was real man.
Was to Follow Him
Hannah Fisch is a plain woman
who has lived most of her life in
a simple German home in a small
German town. And the idol of
her life was her brother, Isador.
And ISador came to America to
make fortune and some day she
was going to follow him. AS the
days went by, she thought many
times of how beautiful it would be
when she and her brother were
together once more.
Then ISador Fisch came home
from America. Not triumphant,
not rolling in the fabulous and
legendary wealth of the prom
ised land, but desperately i'll and
alone and ready to die. He came
to the fatherland-to die. The
pale little man with his cough
that spelled death, with his small
bundle of clothes and his few
dollars, came to die.
Died in Her Arms
And in his sisters arms he did
die.
Bruno Hauptmann claimed that
Isador had given him money OBJ.
tanned for kidnapping a baby.
Hannah Fisch showed us how
that accusation hurt. And on the
witness stand, controlling herself
with a terrible effort, facing this
supposed friend, Hannah Fisch
the sister, showed us how puz
zled and bewildered they had
been. Isador, who had come home
penniless, who had been so dis
couraged, who told them how diff
ficult life had been in America
who had only a few clothes, who
was so sick and weak that he
could scarcely walk, whom they
had to care for and bury when he
died-Isador had done this des
perate and vile deed. and left
more money than they had ever
dreamed about in a shoe box?
The first time the dead ISadol
F1Sch came to life to answer the
accusations against his name Han
nah FiSch spoke for him.
And wherever he may be, lisa
dor Fisch can know that he hac
a voice to speak for him tina
rang with love and with devotion
and with faith.
~