Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Culture

Brooklyn Nags Breathe a Sigh of Relief at ‘King of the Horse Poisoners’ Capture

1914 • 100 years ago

Attack of the Horse Poisoner

Hyman Edelstein, or, as he is known to the police, the “King of the Horse Poisoners,” was arraigned in a Brooklyn courtroom for having allegedly approached a Brooklyn horse handler, Charles Rosenbaum, demanding $100 or he would “poison his nags.” Rosenbaum handled the situation cleverly, telling Edelstein to come back in a little while. In the meantime, Rosenbaum called some colleagues, who could act as witnesses when Edelstein came back. When the King of the Horse Poisoners did return and began renewing his threats to poison the horses, the police were called and Edelstein was arrested. The witnesses Rosenbaum had secured testified that they did indeed hear Edelstein attempt to extort money and threaten to poison Rosenbaum’s horses if he didn’t get it. After a quick trial, the jury found him guilty.

1939 • 75 years ago

Worrying Faith of St. Louis

As the saga of the German Jewish refugees aboard the ship St. Louis continues, the permission the ship had been given to remain in Cuba was revoked. Compounding the tragedy of the refugees, who are now homeless wanderers, a number of the despairing Jews have committed suicide. For Jewish organizations like the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and HIAS, the main issue is finding a refuge, since there is no question that the sea-borne Jews cannot return to Germany. Currently, the JDC has announced that it has found places in a variety of European countries for the 907 refugees. Holland agreed to take 194 of the passengers, and the rest will be split between Belgium and France.

1964 • 50 years ago

Trial of Auschwitz Administrator

In the ongoing trial of the Auschwitz administrator Josef Klehr, testimony given by a Polish eyewitness, Stanislaw Glawa, who worked at the camp hospital, indicated that the procedure for dealing with newborn children was to throw them in the hospital incinerator. The witness added that when there was an outbreak of typhus in the camp, Klehr and his cronies murdered anyone whom they suspected of having the disease. Glawa added that the Nazis didn’t do anything about the lice that carried the typhus, and instead just killed those suffering, or those thought to be suffering from the disease. In addition to killing the victims, Glawa claimed that the Nazis had plans to kill the entire hospital staff, from the doctors on down, as they feared a typhus epidemic.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.