Régime change in January 1933 marked a savage change in political direction as the Hitler government lost little time in transforming Germany into a one-party dictatorship. At the end of February 1933 the Reichstag fire was instantly blamed on "communists" and triggered a wave of arrests. Erich Mühsam had long enjoyed a frosty relationship with the Communist Party, but as a left-wing anarchist writer he was evidently high on the Nazi target list, and he was among the first to be arrested. Fifteen months later, on 10 July 1934, he died under torture at the Oranienburg concentration camp. Newly widowed, Zenzl Mühsam turned to friends and comrades for support, notably Meta Kraus-Fessel (although the two quickly fell out).