Dr. Johann von Leers, one of the leading racial theorists of the Nazi Party and a key figure in the Nazi anti-Semitic campaign, was revealed today to be holding a prominent position in the so-called Ministry of National Guidance in the Egyptian Government.
William Stevenson, correspondent of the Toronto Star, who was expelled from Cairo yesterday, said he had located the notorious von Leers in Cairo, despite efforts of the Egyptian authorities to keep him from tracing the Nazi. He said he found von Leers employed in the “Israel Propaganda Department” of the ministry, and interviewed him there.
The Canadian correspondent told newsmen in Rome that his expulsion from Cairo was because he had found von Leers and was going to publish the news of his employment by the Nasser regime.
Von Leers, notorious as an anti-Semitic specialist and radio broadcaster under Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels, was “Professor of Racial Teaching” at the University of Jena during the Hitler regime. He was the author of the vicious anti-Semitic tract, “Jews Are Looking at You.”
Von Leers told him, Stevenson reported, that, after Hitler’s defeat, he had been captured by United States troops and had been imprisoned for 18 months. Then, according to Stevenson, Von Leers went Argentina where he worked for that country’s dictator, President Juan Peron. When Peron was ousted, Von Leers told Stevenson, he was engaged by the Egyptians as an “expert anti-Jewish propagandist.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
