COMMUNISTS SHOT

Evening Star, Issue 21637, 5 February 1934, Page 9

COMMUNISTS SHOT

INCIDENTS IN GERMANY A STRANGE AFFAIR Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. BERLIN, February 2. Following their escape from a police van that was proceeding to Potsdam from Berlin, four well-known Communists were shot dead, including Johan Scheer, the successor to Thaelmann, in the leadership of the Communists. This quartet, though in a concentration camp when the crime was committed, were allegedly involved in the murder of a carpenter named Alfred Kattnew, who was found shot in bed yesterday morning. _ The actual murderer is unknown, but it is asserted that the quartet conspired with him to cause Kattnew’s death. It is officially reported that when the van was slowing down on an icy patch of road the prisoners jumped out. The police pursued the fugitives, who, although unarmed, attacked the police, who were armed with rifles, revolvers, daggers, and batons, injuring one in the face. The quartet were promptly shot. Kattnew would have been an important witness in a charge of high treason against Thaelmann. The newspapers print varying accounts of the incident. None explains why unarmed fugitives ceased their flight in order to attack armed police with their bare hands.