Evening star., 1948-10-17
German Newsmen VisitingD.C.
Show Strain of Berlin Crisis

ssbB sos~
, to fit me again and they won
stand much more fittings"
Berlin Toughest Duty. ..
The newsmen from Munich
Frankfurt and other cities in tn
American zone are willing to admi
that their fellows in Berlin have tn,
toughest duty.
"An American correspondent II
Berlin gets stopped by the Rus.
slams II he goes too far into theil
sector" said Hans-Hohert Finkel
%, Berlin correspondent and poiiti.
cal editor Of the Dena News Agency
but when they stop a German new.
or camera man they don't stop there
Maybe We see the photographer
F21 days later. as was the case re.
Gently, or maybe we don't see him
any more. We don't see him any
more nor neither does his wife ano
family, or even his third cousins
What do you think has happened?
can swear for the record
but everybody who has lived under
Hitler knows in his heart. This Is
the old threat OF disappearance by
night in secret. Our newsmen carry
credentials good for the city OF
Berlin. Maybe they 60 to cover
meeting of the elected city as
sembly in the city hall, which is
across the line into the Red zone.
Mostly they come back. But the
German press agencies in Berlin
never know. Sometimes we send q
cub reporter to cover a traffic acci-
dent, and we never see him again
or the photographer who takes a
picture of a public building deco.
rated with banners of Stain ano
Lenin is put in jail for three weeks
and fed one bowl Of potato soup Q
day."
Former War Prisoners.
Mr.. Finkel, like Felix Richter. So
editor and publisher of the Sued
deutsche Allgemeine. printed ir
Pforzheim. is a former prisoner OF
war who served most of his time ir
the United States.
Both were anxious to return anC
are seeing this country for the first
time as free men.
Mr.. Finkel was captured by the
British In Tunis during May of 1874;
while serving in the Signal Corp.
Of Marshal Rommel's Africa Korps
The British gave him to the
Americans with other prisoners anc
he worked in camps in Nebraska
Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Lou.
iSiana.
Mr.. Finkel. being . high school,
graduate when he was drafted into
Hitler's army, was used mostly dur
ing his years in this country in ad-
ministrative work. although he still
remembers two weeks near Lake
Charles. La, when he worked in the
rice fields. y.
The former prisoner hopes to gel
back to Louisiana when the seminar
at Columbia is completed at the enc
of this week and the visitors are tt
be allowed two weeks to travel tt
places of their choice this side o.
the Mississippi River.
Wants to Visit Louisiana.
Mr.. Richter, who speaks English
French, italian and Czechoslovakiar
languages fluently, also wants to get
back to Louisiana. where he pickec
cotton and washed dishes for many
months.
He claims that he set a dish.
washing record for that Southern
State with q production of 3,0Ot
daily, and can snatch cotton alons
with the best labor yet encountered
Mr.. Friedman's daily grew out O.
bomb shelter in the rubble O.
downtown Munich. For the frs
two years after the war, his printer.
and editorial staff rarely saw tn,
light of day. They worked under
the concrete which the Nazis fas
spread above propaganda printing
plant.
This editor earned an evil reputa
ton with Hitler as early as 1929
AS a cub reporter he wrote that tn,
Austrian Hitler was trying to tricl
his way into German citizenshi,
by having himself appointed D.,
police official.
The Nazls remembered this so wei
that they sent Mr.. Friedman to tn,
Gestapo prison camp at Dachau
near Munich, when they came int
power. He remained there Il
months, along with Stephan Lorant
who later wrote the book. II wa
Hitler's Prisoner"
Freed After Is Months.
Mr.. Friedman said he was release,
about lS months after his imprison
ment on condition that he woul.
write no more.
At the beginning of the war h
said he was drafted into an anti
tank unit of the Nazi forces and wa
captured by the British in Denmark
during April Of 1945.
The editor said he told the British
intelligence ofncers who questione,
him to read his history in Il wa
Hltler's Prisoner" Fortunately, ther
was q copy at hand, and Mr.. Fried
man was able to return early t,
Munich, where he helped start ,
liberal newspaper.
! Hr. Friedman also has establishe,
a