Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1921-02-17
Tells Of Method. Used In
C~ondemning Persons To
Death; Guards Call Roll
In Dead OF Night; Pro-
ceedings Sometimes Be
came Almost Humorous.

Berlin. Jan. 3o.-(Mail. )-Prisoners
in the jails Of soviet Russia, when
condemned to death. are called out to
be shot by soldiers who stalk Into the
cells after midnight, declares M.
Schwartz of San Francisco, the Social
list who went to Moscow to attend a
congress Of the third internationale
and was imprisoned there for four
months.
(In a previous statement, Mr..
Schwartz told Of the death Of his wife
as a result of a hunger strike she be-
gan to end her Imprisonment in Mos
COW, denounced communism in Rus
STA and said he was going back to
America to tell the workers there the
actual facts about the Russian stu
ation.)
Tai and gaunt, his black hair and
beard heavily streaked with grey, the
American, who had been a Bolshevik
before q visit to Russia %"saddened and
enlightened him." described in a sup
Elemental statement the cold fear and
trembling in which soviet prisoners
wait for the visits in the dead OF
night.
Calls Out Names.
"They always come between tn,
hours of 1 and 2 o'clock, he said. "a
Bolshevist soldier walks into the
crowded cell and in the instant silence
calls out the names Of the men, OF
women. who must die. In the jai.
where I was they marched the prison
ers down a stairway and into a court.
yard. We could hear the volleys OF
the firing squads. Many men were
! called out for execution from my eel
during those four months. Few o.
them knew willy they had been con
demned, but generally it was under.
stood-they were 'counter-revolution'
aries They were shot without trial
Became Almost Humorous.
After a time the prisoners became
i%nurcdito these visits and, in the filth
M monotony of prison life, ceased
to care whether their anne were
called or not, Mr.. Schwartz said
CHEEKY greetings were often passed a
the condemned men were marched
out. The men about to die would sa!
their goodbyes, wave their cell con
rades a so-long and those remaining
would cry out:
Goodbye. See you later"
Throughout the first few nights
however, MIR. Schwartz said h
trembled as with ague, and his clothes
even to his overcoat, were wet will
Precipitation. Other prisoners, SOM
or whom had been IN the Jail TO
more than a year, took the matte
cynically and told him with apparen
relish the horrors through which the,
had gone.
When at last the came t
Schwartz to leave the cell he said h.
was certain he was going to the plac
of execution. But they led him up
stairs instead of down. He was take7
before an official named Feldman, j!
whose hands was the power Of life an
death over all the prisoners in hi
charge. This man said he had re
viewed Schwartz case and the Ameri
can was free to go. Then the Boil
shevist said:
'"Will you tell me what you thin
of the soviet government? Will yo'
go back to the United States and speal
against us?"
There was a long pause in whicI
thoughts of the four months in prise,
and the executioncrs thronged int
the Americans mind. Then he re
piled:
Reply Satisfactory.
IF your government really repre-
sents the working ma l am for II
All my life. I have worked for tn
laboring classes"
Evasive though it was, Schwart
said the reply appeared to satisfy tn
soviet official, who affected a pleas
antry and dismissed him.
IF every Bo:shevist in Americ
could spend a few weeks in a sovie
prison." he concluded, there woul
be no more followers Of the red fla
at home"