Arne Laurin, prominent Czech journalist and a close collaborator of Thomas Masaryk, first President of Czechoslovakia, and of Dr. Edward Bones, died here last night. He was 56. Mr. Laurin, who was Jewish, came to the United States in 1939 after the Munich Pact, which, he foresaw, meant the end of an independent Czechoslovakia. He was in charge of the archives of the Czechoslovak consulate here.
As editor of the Prager Presse, official spokesman of the Czechoslovak Foreign Office. Mr. Laurin worked closely with both Masaryk and Benes and was an influential behind-the-scenes figure in Czechoslovakia from its inception. He was born in Huncire, near Prague, in 1889.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
