European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 11, 1947, Darmstadt, Hesse By Michael Vale i Joseph ass Cher refuses to be photo graphed he Doest want people to recognize a Diamond Cutter who is also custodian for fifteen billion in Amsterdam when Friday the thirteenth in the month of rolled Joseph who used to Trail Diamond dust in the ass Cher cutting stood in the cattle car bound for Magde Burg from and thought the Day be the train had and outside there was ass Cher had spent a year in then what newer horror Lay ahead for him and the Hundred others crammed into the stifling he by the next ass Cher was con Vinced ail theories regarding the dire Ness of fridays falling on the thirteenth were pure look at what had happened to him in the past Twenty four a chattel of the nazis to a free human being All that shooting the night before had been an Exchange Between a Lone american tank and some German during the skirmish ass Cher had slipped out of the found himself suddenly ass Cher tells the Story in his office expensively Tail speaking English with a Crisp British accent acquired from fifteen years residence in the office is a very plebeian As prosaic As any plumbers Supply firms inner not even one Diamond studded like ass Cher him it is All in Diamond cutting capital of the the ass Cher firm is the largest and most important of four or five major concerns engaged in processing rough stones into glittering gems for and other showcases of the members of the great de Beers Diamond the ass hers Are shy about giving out information on the amount of business they but an inkling can be gained from the fact that the Syndicate is custodian of an estimated fifteen billion dollars Worth of with a curtailed whose ranks were decimated by the the ass Cher Plant is Dis gorging Only a fraction of its prewar comparing his own ordeal under the nazis wit what happened to his ass Cher i got off More lightly than Many of almost All the polishers and shapers were jewish in the Trade which has been handed Down from father to son since Abraham ass Cher established himself in Amster dam As a Diamond Cutter three generations when the nazis invaded the blight or the Gestapo fell heavily among the workers in precious when the nazis arrested me in i left behind 350 ass Cher when i returned in i Learned that two Hundred had been liquidated by the ass Cher tells a Story of How simple it was to fool Hermann Goering when the Art plundering Reich marshal cocked a covetous Eye at a gracefully solid Silver bowl reposing on the mantel in ass hers it had been presented to the firm by King Edward Vii in recognition of the cutting of the Cul Jinan now among the British Crown Goering informed ass Cher he would like to own the but ass Cher replied that he really part with the Royal the fat air Leader turned a deaf car to ass hers i shall pick it up when i he told the Diamond when Goering came ass Cher he asked me about the i informed him it had been he appeared satisfied with that of he prod ably thought it was one of his own men who had taken 1 had still have the with almost two thirds of labor Force along his and his two Jack and began the rebuilding of the a Skeleton Crew of survivors augmented by a number of apprentices manned turn ing plates and polishing soon hundreds of thousands of dollars Worth of diamonds were again gleam ing under fingers of skilled workers and other men who were fast absorbing techniques that had been years in the the Al though they had carted off Diamond stocks Worth ten million dollars at prewar had left the machinery ass Cher delights in having visitors shown around the they Are thoroughly familiar with the techniques once past the por tals of the building that looks like almost any other factory in the visitors Are frequently disappointed by what they expecting perhaps to be dazzled neatly stacked Mounds of gorgeous they Are definitely let Down by the workaday and a com plete Lack of resemblance to a store House of Apro Ned workers Bend Over or stand at rotating apparently quite unimpressed by the costliness and Glamor of the product they help to most visitors to the Plant wonder How employees Are prevented from making off with the easily secreted the system the ass hers employ has prevented great losses thus each worker is parcelled out the number of diamonds he is to polish or when he has finished his he must turn in the same number of occasionally a Bauble is and is written off by the if an employee loses too Many Over a period of the ass hers assume that he is either stealing them or is being too Over the a negligible num ber have been fired As a result of most of the skilled employees have been with the ass hers since their fact of which the owners Are they have no reason to doubt the loyalty of the Many newcomers to the what the ass hers worry about mainly not that their Stock will be but How Long it will take the neophytes to absorb techniques taught at the school set up by the Amsterdam Diamond apprentices have to learn All three phases of their Trade first is the cutting or the rough Stone often contains impurities such As coloured spots or Pur pose of the continued on Page 23
