During the first three months of 1933 the newly installed Hitler government transformed Germany into a one-party dictatorship. The Reichstag fire was followed by a savage clamp down on known members of the (by now illegal) Communist: Walter Trautzsch was arrested by Nazi paramilitaries on 3 March 1933 and taken into "protective custody", becoming one of the first inmates at Colditz Castle, following its conversion into a political prison. He was subsequently transferred to the Sachsenburg concentration camp. He was released in September 1934 and returned to his political activities, becoming the leader of an illegal communist resistance group in and around Lengefeld.