COMMUNIST CHIEF

Evening Star, Issue 22542, 9 January 1937, Page 10

COMMUNIST CHIEF

EXECUTED IN GERMANY Edgar Andre, leader of the Communists in Hamburg, was beheaded on November 5. He was arrested on March 5, 1933, appeared for trial in May, 1936, on charges of fatally assaulting Nazis, was sentenced to death on July 10, 1936, and was beheaded on November 5, 1936—three years and eight months of solitary confinement and alleged torture before he died. His wife and many friends both in Germany and outside believed in his innocence. Efforts were made from many quarters to secure the commutation of his death sentence and to have him released. Martha Berg-Andre, his wife, who escaped from Germany to London—she also was imprisoned without trial for almost a year—worked hard to interest geople in efforts to save her husband’s In October she wrote a letter to the editor of the ‘Manchester Guardian,’ a paper which had pleaded several times for the life of her husband. In that remarkable document she wrote: — My husband was arrested on March 5, 1933—the day of the last democratic election. In May, 1933, on the socalled Schlageter Day, my husband was so severely mishandled that he lay six weeks in hospital, 11 days of the period on a water bed. No fewer than eight S.S. men, belonging to the “ Detachment for Special Service ’ of that time, had fallen upon him with oxhide thongs and rubber truncheons. The leader of these men, when Andre lay unconscious on the ground, performed a dance on his naked body. The same man said that day to my husband, Itthe court does not condemn you to death I will hang you on this butcher s hook.” THE SAME PRISON.

My own arrest followed on October 10 1933. The charge was preparation for high treason. I was taken to the same remand prison in which my husband was. Here we were, not _maltreated; that was done by men of the Gestapo, the secret State ing the interrogation in the Stadtnaus. I was taken there on four successive days During those days I had to witness’the beating of a prisoner; he was so severely beaten on the fifth day it was alleged that he had committed suicide. There was not a sound spot on the upper part of his body, the whole of the skin had been beaten till I myself was bent double, with wrists handcuffed to my ankles, and punched on the back. For nine months after my release from the remand prison on August 18, J 934, I was under medical treatment. " From foreign delegates to my husband’s trial, who were allowed to speak to him during the trial in June, 1936, I learned that my husband had been subjected in January to the thumbSC During my imprisonment I was able only twice to see my husband, both times at the very beginning During the last five months I was not allowed even to write to him. After my release the examining judge permitted 10 minutes’ talk every fortnight, _ of course in the presence of an official. On no occasion did my husband complain of his treatment; he was too proud for that. „ At my visit on January 3, 1936, I noticed a bandage on his right hand. The blood was seeping through all over. I asked what had happened, but the official present forbade him to reply. Next day I received the usual Sunday letter from, my husband; he merely wrote that he had been in bed for a week. Later I saw scars on his hand. I have positive’ knowledge only of those two mishandlings, but am convinced that my husband was often beaten and tortured by Gestapo men. My husband’s trial opened on May 4 1936. He had been in solitary confinement for three years, and at last he was brought to trial. I mysejlf was summoned as a witness for May 8. One day before my evidence was to be heard I was arrested and taken to Fuhlshuttel concentration camp. At reception I had to give my name to the camp commandant. I was made to stand stiffly M attention and shout “ Protective-abrest-prisoner Berg ” over and over again, until he was content. Then the head of the camp explained to the S.S. officials present in tho room: “This is Andre’s mistress.. Phi X hare known

her a long time. She used to go abo.ufi in silk and satin taking her dog out.”' To me he said: ‘ Are you not ashamed to have lived with such a man?. Well, now he is being condemned to death and can do the world no, more harm. At least we are being rid of these Communist swine. You do not seem to have improved—well, we will soon see that you do.” I was not physically ill-treated, hut every official assumed the right to use towards me the tone the camp i commandant had set. . On the day when I was to giveevidence I was -taken first to the Stadtbans, the headquarters of the Hamburg Gestapo. One official shouted at me: “ Day and night, month after month, I have been working to bring Andre to bag. Now it has been done. He will lose his head; that has been seen to.” SPYING DEMANDED. A Gestapo inspector had released me from the concentration camp on May 26. In return he demanded that I should do spying for the Gestapo., In order to get my freedom and. to. work for my husband I gave the promise demanded. I' gave my signature to what was ■ demnded; but I never kept my promise. I know that I should never have given such a promise, but tfcey drove me to it in my terror for my husband’s life. . • ‘ I was not allowed to listen to tho court proceedings; and I was unable to get a glimpse of my husband. Th* majority of the witnesses were serving sentences, some of imprisonment for life, and few were free men. The court had to admit that the witnesses whose sentences had expired in April and May had been taken from prison to concentration camp. Other - witnesses were arrested before being heard. Almost all the witnesses deposed to the court that they had been ill-treated by the Gestapo until they were ready; to give evidence against Andre. * On the day of the pronouncement of the verdict a National Socialist said to me: ' “ Now I have come to know; Andre. He is a real hero. *pie verdict is a miscarriage of justice, and must not he allowed to be carried out.”' Mrs Andre explained how she had been refused permission to see her husband even after he had been sentenced* and fled abroad in an effort to roUS« “ the feeling of humanity in rightthinking people.” ■- “ From the depth of my heart ! beg for help for my husband, for he is innocent,” she concluded. One month and three days after sh« wrote that letter, Edgar Andre died, beheaded in Hamburg by the common executioner.