This piece is a follow-up to my 4-part series on Werner Adolf Goldstein.
Part 1 is here, Part 2 is here, Part 3 is here & Part 4 is here.
In earlier posts (see above), I explored the gold-related frauds of Josef Jakobs and Werner Goldstein based on Josef’s MI5 interrogations as well as brief notices in the Swiss Police Gazette.
Now, newly rediscovered Swiss press reports from 1935 confirm many aspects of Josef’s account and the circumstances around the Jakobs-Goldstein fraud.
For readers new to this series, Josef and Werner met in Berlin and travelled to Switzerland in April 1934 with the goal of passing off a gold alloy as being more valuable than it actually was. They set up a flat in Zurich where they smelted the gold and then travelled throughout Switzerland passing it off as refugee gold. In July and August 1934, Josef’s wife visited him for several weeks. Shortly after her departure in early September, the two men were arrested by the Swiss authorities. According to Josef, they were tried, found guilty and sentenced to 2 years and 3 months imprisonment.
While I had found a few references to the two men in the Swiss Police Gazettes available in the Swiss Archives, many details of their case were unsubstantiated. Until a few weeks ago, when I found an e-newspaper site from the Swiss National Library with several articles that reported on Josef’s trial.
The Short Version: Swiss Papers on the Gold Fraud Trial
Two newspapers ran fairly short articles on the courtroom drama that took place at the Schwurgericht (jury court) in Pfäffikon, one of the smaller district court sites for the area around Zurich. The Zürcher Oberländer and Berner Tagwacht newspapers ran almost identical articles and I have reproduced the former here and provided a translation courtesy of ChatGPT.
From the Courtroom
Before the Jury Court in Pfäffikon
The 37-year-old, alleged dentist Josef Jakobs from Berlin stood trial for repeated aggravated and simple fraud totalling more than 28,000 francs, as well as forgery of federal documents. Together with dentist Werner Goldstein, also from Berlin, he had come to Switzerland in April 1934. On the basis of Goldstein’s supposed invention for “enlarging” gold by mixing it with base metal (a process said to yield 14-carat gold), they deceived a merchant, a dentist, and a technician into handing over more than 28,000 francs between April and August. Most of the money was squandered in Geneva and Nice in frivolous company. Goldstein had already been sentenced by the High Court to two years and three months in prison and lifelong expulsion from the country. Jakobs has now received the same sentence from the jury court.
I have been unable to find a modern day equivalent value for those 28,000 francs, but they were probably not a small sum, given the sentences that Werner and Josef received. I also get the sense that the two men were smooth talkers, convincing fairly educated people that their gold “enlarging” process was legitimate and legal. Given what we know of their contacts in Geneva and Nice, I would presume that they were spending their time with Yvonne Sommerfeld. I imagine that their ill-gotten gains also allowed Josef to entertain his wife in July and August, taking extended road trips, even down to Rome. Their ill-gotten gains were not socked away for a rainy day, or sent home to support Josef’s children, but frittered away on “frivolous” company.
The next newspaper has a much longer article which shines a sarcastic light on both the perpetrators, as well as their victims.
The Long Version: A Fool and His Money are Soon Parted
On 26 September, 1935, the Burgdorfer Tagblatt published an extended article on Josef and Werner and how their little scheme sucked in so much money. Interested readers can click the aforementioned link to see the article in German. Here is an English translation, courtesy of ChatGPT.
COURTROOM
The gold‑makers and their believers. Big profits always entice, and anyone who promises a lot will attract a long tail of followers. That’s true in politics and in everyday life. And anyone who claims they can make gold out of “dirt and birds’ eggs” will find believers in every circle. So it was with the two Berliners Werner Adolf Goldstein (b. 1911) and Josef Jakobs, allegedly a dentist (b. 1898). Jakobs had been in pre‑trial detention in Zurich since 20 September 1934—over a year. Goldstein had already been sentenced some time ago by the Zurich High Court to two years and three months in prison, while Jakobs now faced the charges and therefore came before the jury court.
The two Berliners claimed—especially Goldstein—to have discovered that by adding a cheap metal to gold, the quantity of gold could be increased, with some reduction in fineness, yielding a 40% profit. They “proved” this by an experiment in which, with sleight‑of‑hand, they added real gold instead of the promised cheap metal. They boldly declared they would repeat the experiment before professors at the Swiss Federal Technical University (ETH). In this manner, they succeeded in duping several Zurich firms into financing their “invention”: a merchant gave 5,440 francs; a technician 7,300; a dentist with a doctorate 4,000; and later—on the strength of a forged sworn statement by a Geneva resident stating that he would hand Goldstein 60,000 francs upon Goldstein’s marriage to his daughter Yvonne, plus another 12,000 francs—further sums were promised.
They were also accused of altering, in May or June 1934 in Zurich, a postal receipt for a remittance to Germany, changing the amount from 300 (or probably 360) francs to 3,600 francs, and using it in dealings with the dentist who had been taken in by their “gold‑increase process.”
Jakobs confessed before the jurors, who accordingly found him guilty of repeated simple fraud totalling 16,740 francs, and of knowingly using falsified federal documents. The court sentenced him, like Goldstein, to two years and three months in prison (minus 82 days of pre‑trial detention), lifelong expulsion from Switzerland, and payment of costs.
Most of this information matches up with what Josef had told the MI5 officers during his interrogations at Camp 020. What is new in this newspaper report is that the alloy itself wasn’t the real issue. The fraud lay in their sleight-of-hand—adding real gold to the melt—thereby convincing the onlookers that they were witnessing a miraculous process, an enlargement of the gold.
In the first article of my earlier series, I had also come across a 22 June, 1934, Swiss Police Gazette notice which noted that the police were looking to determine Werner’s whereabouts, but not necessarily looking for his arrest (yet). The postal receipt business would seem to account for that, perhaps.
Finally, we come to a very juicy morsel surrounding Yvonne Sommerfeld. It would appear as if the two con-artists had forged a sworn statement by Georg Sommerfeld (the Geneva Resident) in which Georg said he would give Goldstein 60,000 francs when/if Goldstein married Georg’s daughter, Yvonne. And that a further 12,000 francs would be forthcoming. It looked as if Georg Sommerfeld was promising a dowry of 60,000 francs if Goldstein married his daughter Yvonne — at least, according to the forged affidavit. Josef had mentioned that Goldstein had hoped to marry Yvonne Sommerfeld but that they had been arrested before anything could come of it.
Interestingly, Josef had told MI5 that Yvonne Sommerfeld was involved with the French Intelligence Service and it was her activities that had led to the arrest of Werner and Josef. It was only after their arrest that the gold fraud had come to light. There is not a glimmer of this espionage connection in these newspaper articles, which doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, but it is a bit of an unknown.
Conclusion
The newspaper reports on Josef’s 1935 trial show that his interrogation stories were not merely self-serving fabrications—Swiss newspapers had already documented the fraud, the sleight-of-hand, and the gullible investors years earlier. Josef was telling the truth, at least some version of it. And, tucked within these newspaper reports, we find confirmation that Yvonne Sommerfeld was indeed connected to Josef Jakobs and Werner Goldstein. I had confirmed her existence a year or two ago in a separate blog post, but these 1935 newspaper articles actually link her name to our two con-men. Yvonne’s story, and that of her family, are an irresistible tale—as tangled in scandal and survival as Josef’s own. Her story, and that of her family, will take centre stage in the next series of blog posts.
Sources
Swiss E-Newspaper Archives – https://www.e-newspaperarchives.ch