Executive Fired for Translating “Journal” Items

Because she helped translate three reference articles published in The Journal of Historical Review, a long-time executive of the German National Tourist Office in New York has been dismissed.

Michael Kranefeld, Regional Manager of the Office, announced on May 9 the immediate dismissal of its manager of sales promotions, Elke Berg, who is also the wife of Journal Editorial Advisory Committee member Friedrich Berg.

“We had to dismiss her… We do not tolerate anti-Semitism,” Kranefeld said. He added that Elke Berg had worked for the Board for 18 years, and that her role in the translation “was the first anyone here knew about her views.”

Elke Berg, a native of Germany whose former name is Kniepkamp, married Friedrich Berg in 1988. She had helped translate three technical articles that appeared several years ago as appendices in two issues of the Journal.

The three articles, which are devoid of any political content, were originally published in Germany in 1938, 1943 and 1944. They were translated “by F. P. Berg and E. Kniepkamp,” and appeared as supplements to essays by Friedrich Berg. The first was published in the Spring 1986 Journal as an appendix to “The German Delousing Chambers.” Two others were published in the Winter 1988-89 Journal as appendices to “Typhus and the Jews.”