Headline: From Russia
To: Die Welt-Post
Mr. Editor, please place this article in your newspaper, Die Welt-Post, in order that we may clarify and complete the picture for the readers of the newspaper, of the unfair accusations that we have already tried to do in an earlier article written by Pastor Wacker of Norka. This concerns the distribution of clothing from America.
Representatives Repp, Wagner and Volz will testify that the packets, more often than not, arrived either completely empty or broken into with items removed and replaced with old things. Unfortunately nothing could be done to give the addressees any better items. That was how things went earlier when these men were here and also how it went in this instance. Sacks were found with only 1 item or without anything at all inside and nobody on the Committee could say to whom this or that thing belonged.
What appears remarkable to us is that of a committee consisting of 11 members only 5 are accused of stealing. Conrad Krieger and his brother-in-law Blum apparently think the other 6 members were either asleep or complete idiots during the distribution. We believe that our friends and acquaintances will conclude that we were dishonestly accused out of hate and envy. When one has to reckon with such people one can expect little in return. If we were not separated so far by land and water, it would be an easy thing for us to explain to our friends in America who the guilty party is. God protect us from this fraud which these people who slander us are guilty of and who have often been arrested for night break-ins and, in fact, been put behind bars. One can expect such as these to throw dirt at respectable men and bring their honesty into question.
These men have done other misdeeds that could be enumerated. And, should this explanation not be enough and Carl Krieger and his friends Johannes, David, Georg and Jacob Blum still continue with their accusations against us, we will, for our part, respond by exposing them further.
Ludwig Hohnstein, C. Spady, Peter Weber, Georg Schmer
(The signers are members of the Norka Distribution Committee---Translator.)
Representatives Repp, Wagner and Volz will testify that the packets, more often than not, arrived either completely empty or broken into with items removed and replaced with old things. Unfortunately nothing could be done to give the addressees any better items. That was how things went earlier when these men were here and also how it went in this instance. Sacks were found with only 1 item or without anything at all inside and nobody on the Committee could say to whom this or that thing belonged.
What appears remarkable to us is that of a committee consisting of 11 members only 5 are accused of stealing. Conrad Krieger and his brother-in-law Blum apparently think the other 6 members were either asleep or complete idiots during the distribution. We believe that our friends and acquaintances will conclude that we were dishonestly accused out of hate and envy. When one has to reckon with such people one can expect little in return. If we were not separated so far by land and water, it would be an easy thing for us to explain to our friends in America who the guilty party is. God protect us from this fraud which these people who slander us are guilty of and who have often been arrested for night break-ins and, in fact, been put behind bars. One can expect such as these to throw dirt at respectable men and bring their honesty into question.
These men have done other misdeeds that could be enumerated. And, should this explanation not be enough and Carl Krieger and his friends Johannes, David, Georg and Jacob Blum still continue with their accusations against us, we will, for our part, respond by exposing them further.
Ludwig Hohnstein, C. Spady, Peter Weber, Georg Schmer
(The signers are members of the Norka Distribution Committee---Translator.)
Sources
Die Welt-Post, December 27, 1923, page 5.
This translation provided courtesy of Hugh Lichtenwald.
This translation provided courtesy of Hugh Lichtenwald.
Last updated March 6, 2016