Otto D. Tolischus

Who was Otto D. Tolischus?

Otto David Tolischus was a Prussian-Lithuanian-born journalist for the New York Times and winner of the 1940 Pulitzer Prize for Correspondence for his writing in Berlin during World War II.

Born in Russ, East Prussia, German Empire, he emigrated in 1907 to the United States. After working in factories, he attended the Columbia School of Journalism and joined the Cleveland Press after graduating, working his way up to managing editor.

In 1923 he returned to Europe, working for Universal Service in Berlin until 1931 and for International News Service in London from 1931 to 1932 as chief correspondent. After some time back in the US, he joined the Berlin bureau of the New York Times in 1933, where he chronicled the rise of Nazi Germany until he was expelled in March 1940.

Tolischus was assigned to Tokyo in January 1941. A few hours after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that December, Tolischus was arrested and imprisoned for five months, where he was regularly beaten and tortured. During this period of imprisonment, the Japanese manager of the Times Tokyo Bureau, Junnosuke Ofusa, took food and clothes to Tolischus. This on-going contact continued until Tolischus was sent to the United States as part of a prisoner exchange in 1942.