"Treason!"

A sniveling naturalized U. S. citizen who sobbed his devotion to Germany in court and boohooed his way to acquittal when accused by Nazis of "treason to the Fatherland" was English Teacher Richard Roiderer of Cleveland, Ohio (TIME, April 22). In Munich last week opened the second Nazi trial of this kind, the defendant being Karl Nisselbeck, born in 1901 at Munich. He became a U. S. citizen in 1931, since 1934 has resided in Munich. He was championed by the local U. S. consul who, after journalists had been shooed out and the Nazi court was about to become a star chamber, insisted on remaining present.

Star witness called by the Nazi prosecutor was a cowed-looking German in convict garb. Testifying in disjointed fragments, this jailbird swore that he had recognized a picture of Nisselbeck shown him by Nazi police as being that of a man he had seen consorting in Czechoslovakia with anti-Nazi refugees from Germany.

Interjected counsel for the defense: "From how many photographs shown to you by the police did you recognize the picture of the accused?"

"From one or two," muttered the witness. Even Nazis in the courtroom tittered at this sidelight on Nazi police methods.

Although the witness finally became inextricably confused in his own testimony and was not asked to give evidence under oath, the Munich Court ended by sentencing naturalized U. S. Citizen Karl Nisselbeck to a jail term of two years for being "an accessory to attempted high treason" to Germany committed by "plotting" with two Germans. One of these two the court acquitted; the other was sentenced to nine months.

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