Klaipėda panorama between the World Wars. Photo courtesy Wikipedia
An underground cell of the German national socialist Party (NSDAP or Nazi) was established in Klaipėda as far back as 1928. The group grew and took part in the regional election on May 22, 1933, under the guise of the Christian Socialist Workers Party (Christliche Sozialistische Artbeitsgemeinschaft, abbreviated CSA). The CSAs chairman was Pastor Sass, assisted by Ropp, Gaebler and others. Before long, however, R. Hess in Berlin demanded that Sass be replaced by a stronger leader, veterinary surgeon Dr. K. Neumann. When Sass refused to step down, a second Nazi party was established in Klaipėda on July 6, 1933: Sozialistische Artbeitsgemeinschaft, or SOVOG for short. SOVOG claimed to be loyal to the Lithuanian government, but was in fact working against it.
Both parties actively recruited new members, using propaganda, threats, promises and cash. The latest available data showed 2,258 members in CSA and 5,986 in SOVG. Both parties had secret Sturm Kolonnen (storm troopers, abbr. SK) who received military training twice a week. SKs were structured along the lines of the Nazi SA and SS units. They were expected, amongst other duties, to gather intelligence and to carry out terrorist acts.
By early 1934, both parties .were busy organising an armed insurrection. Many members were sent to special NSDAP schools in Germany. SA troops were stationed at the Lithuanian frontier. Word was spread systematically that it was time to liberate the Klaipėda region from the Lithuanians. Cash for subversion kept coming in from Germany.
The Lithuanian authorities started their enquiries on February 24, 1934. A total of 1,104 illegal firearms were seized from 805 CSA and SOVOG members. Just one of them, the leader of SOVOG in the city of Klaipėda, Mr Rademacher, was discovered to have hoarded 18 unlicensed guns. Then, on March 23, 1934, four SOVOG members assassinated Georg Jesuttis, a sergeant-major in the district court of Klaipėda. Jesuttis had been clandestinely dealing with the Nazis since 1928. During the 1934 investigation, he was questioned by the Lithuanian security police. The local German Vice Consul, Dr Strack, and Mr Moser, the Nazi chief of Tilsit, felt that Jesuttis had to be silenced before he divulged too much of the Nazi plans for Klaipėda. Jesuttis was murdered on March 23, 1934 and his body was thrown into the Jūra river.
On May 14, 1934, two SOVOG members also tried to kill another fellow member of their party, Wilhelm Lopps. He was accused of supplying information to the Lithuanians. This attempt on Mr Lopps life was not successful.
The judicial case opened on December 14, 1934 and concluded more than three months later, on March 26, 1935. A total of 126 persons were charged, with their alleged offences extending over a wide range of crimes, including murder, attempted murder, conspiring against the state, and keeping illegal weapons.
Thirty-five persons were found to be not guilty and were acquitted. The four killers of Sgt Jesuttis were identified and were sentenced to die. This verdict was later commuted to life imprisonment. Dr Neumann and Bertulaitis were gaoled with hard labour for 12 years. Sass and Ropp received 8 years imprisonment each. Most of these prisoners were amnestied on September 8, 1937.
The entire process became known as the Neumann-Sass case, after the names of the two Nazi leaders. Throughout its duration, Germany conducted a relentless large-scale anti-Lithuanian campaign. Abuse, smears and outright lies were broadcast non stop from Berlin to the entire world. From the outset, the German Government also resorted to Lithuanias economic repression. The Germans imposed a high customs tariff duty on all Lithuanian agricultural imports; then, at the end of 1934, Germany cancelled all trading treaties with Lithuania.
The small republic of Lithuania was hit severely, but did not give in. Lithuanian poultry farmers were stuck with thousands of geese, originally earmarked for export to Germany. The Lithuanian government came to the farmers rescue, by requiring all civil servants to buy the unwanted poultry. The number of geese to be purchased was directly related to each employees salary grade: the higher the rate of pay, the more geese the employee had to take home for his or her Sunday dinner.
At least one of the participants in the Neumann-Sass case had an Australian link. Young Lithuanian lawyer Antanas Mikaila worked as an assistant prosecutor at the Sass - Neumann case in 1934- 35. Five years later, Russia - which was Nazi Germanys closest partner and supporter at the time - occupied Lithuania (1940-41). Mikaila was promptly gaoled by the Soviets, his only transgression being that he had been employed in a judicial position in independent Lithuania.
Then, during the German occupation of Lithuania that followed (1941-44), Mikaila was again wanted by the Nazis, but he managed to go into hiding and so escaped a second imprisonment.
Antanas Mikaila migrated to Australia in 1949 and died before he could write his memoirs.
REFERENCES
J.Dn. [= J. Dainauskas], Neumanno ir Sasso byla. Lietuvių Enciklopedija, XX, Boston: LE, 1960, pp.253-4. GERUTIS, Albertas, Lithuania 700 Years. 6th Edition. Transl. Algirdas Budreckis. New York: Manyland Books, 1969, 1984, pp.242-246. PLIEG, E.A., Das Memelland 1920 1939. Würzburg, 1962.
Klaipėdos krašto konvencija ir statutas. Lietuvių Enciklopedija, XII. Boston: LE, 1957.
[Foreign Ministry of Lithuania]. Question de Memel, VoIs.1 and 2. Kaunas: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1924 (in French).
The text in this article is courtesy of Lithuanian Papers (Annual Journal of the Lithuanian Studies Society at the University of Tasmania). It appeared in Volume 22 (2008), pp. 22-28