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Berthold Jacob (12 December 1898 in Berlin – 26 February 1944 in Berlin) was a German journalist and pacifist during the Interwar period.
Having been enticed to Basel, Switzerland, by undercover Gestapo agent Hans Wesemann, Jacob was kidnapped on 9 March 1935 and taken across the German-Swiss border to Weil am Rhein. He had known Wesemann for some time and had served as best man at Wesemann's wedding. Wesemann was later sentenced to three years in jail for the kidnapping. The case was investigated by Swiss police officer Anton Ganz, who went to London to interview such people as Dora Fabian and Karl Korsch. The subsequent death of Fabian alongside her friend Mathilde Wurm led to concern that they had been murdered rather than committed suicide which was the verdict of the coroner's court. This contributed to the climate of opinion which led to a successful campaign for Jacob's release from Nazi Germany. This campaign was based on Swiss diplomatic pressure on the German government and German exile protests.
Upon being returned to Switzerland in September 1935, Jacob was deported to France. Here, he continued his work until the outbreak of the Second World War. He was interned with his wife in Southern France between 1939 and 1940, and attempted unsuccessfully to acquire a Travel visa for the United States. They managed to escape from Marseille, travelling to Portugal in 1941. Jacob was one of the refugees aided by Varian Fry. "Some of the 2,000 people assisted by Varian Fry and the Emergency Rescue Committee." Varian Fry Institute, 12 February 2008. Retrieved 31 December 2017. However, he was once again kidnapped by the Gestapo in Lisbon and held in the Gestapo prison at Prinz-Albrecht-Straße, Berlin. Owing to the harsh treatment he endured, Jacob died in the Berlin Jewish Hospital on 26 February 1944.
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