In the middle of January 1941 it became known that Heine's name was included on a list provided to the French authorities by the Germans of people who should be handed over to them under the terms of Clause 19 in the armistice which had ended hostilities between the French and German armies back in June 1940. He was then at heightened risk of arrest and set about organising his own escape. Before he left he set in train a plan to smuggle Rudolf Breitscheid and Rudolf Hilferding, two senior and by now elderly party politicians, out of Marseilles by hiding them on a ship. However, Breitscheid and Hilferding, despite being in possession of US entry visas organised under the auspices of the "Emergency Rescue Committee", still did not have legitimate identity documents and, according to one version, refused to leave without them. They believed they would be able to leave by other means: both were arrested and later killed by the Nazis.