Like Old Times

As in hundreds of other U.S. zone cities and towns last week, the 33,000 citizens of Schwaebisch-Gmuend were electing a Buergermeister. Up for re-election was Franz Czisch, a 40-year-old grocer and Christian Democrat whom the Nazis had once expelled from law school as a "half-Jew." Opposing him, on a no-party ticket, was Franz Konrad, Buergermeister under Hitler, twice denazified by his neighbors.

On the basis of efficient administration, Czisch was the favorite to win. More than that, his work in behalf of 2,200 Christian and Jewish refugees who had come to Schwaebisch-Gmuend from beyond the Iron Curtain won him a commendation from the U.S. military government.

But Konrad's campaign had some surprises. It started with a whisper: "No wonder Czisch helps the refugees--he's a Jew!" It grew in volume with the use of a sound truck and another charge: "Czisch is a stooge of the Americans!" On election day Konrad won easily. That night, young men marched the streets of Schwaebisch-Gmuend singing the Horst Wessel song. They stoned the house of Franz Czisch, shouted: "Go to Palestine where you belong!" Then they stoned the windows of Jewish shops.

Franz Czisch refused to protest the election. "It is no good," he said. "Even if Konrad is removed I would not continue the job. The people have spoken." Charles M. La Follette, former Congressman from Indiana, now Military Governor of Wuert-temburg-Baden, ordered an immediate investigation, expressed "grave concern."

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