The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-09-26
TORCLER WAS
CHAINED DAY
AND NIGHT
Leo Gallagher, LID.
Lawyer, Arrives
in Leipzig

LEIPZIG, Sept. Is. For seven
months I have been in confinement
and 1 mean to tell the world that
am absolutely innocent"
This was the dramatic declaration
in the Nazi supreme court here to-
day by Ernst Torgler, for many years
chairman of the Communist depu-
ties in the German Reichstag. Torg-
Ter is being tried with three leading
Bulgarian reyolutionarieS - George
Dimitroff, Blagoi Popoff and Vassil
Taneff-on framed-up charges of set
ting fire to the Reichstag building.
When the presiding judge tried to
silence the Communist leader on the
pretext that he first wanted to "es-
tablish identification and that we
can discuss politics later" Torgler
said:
Chained Day and Night
II must first of all say have been
in Jail for seven months, for five OF
them chained day and night. I was
forced to keep silence, and must
take this first opportunity to get my
message to the world
81 am absolutely innocent" Torg-
! Ter repeated vellemently as the pre-
siding Judge tried to halt his testi-
mony. II protest out of disgust Mat
I am being accused directly or irdi-
rectly of any connection with this
monstrous and unspeakable crime, or
that my party is.
81 gave myself up to protect my
party. For seven months have been
in confinement, and during these
months I have been under the fire
of a continuous cross-examination
and five of these months l was
chained day and night.
Arrested When Protesting
81 did not endure it because MY
health was equal to it, but because l
am innocent, and I want to do my
part in clearing my party of this
monstrous accusation"
Neither he nor the Communist
Party of Germany had the slightest
connection with the Reichstag fire.
Torgler declared, and called atten-
ton to the fact that he had gone to
the Berlin police headquarters on
February 2S-the very day after the
fire-to protest against the Nazi al
legations that the Communist Party
was responsible. Both Torgler and
the attorney who accompanied him
were at once arrested.
Torgler Worn and Thin
Torgler looked worn and emaciated
as result of the months of impris-
onment and torture, but he never
theless spoke with great fervor When
he asked that he be permitted to
speak without standing up, the Nazi
court had no alternative but to grant
it,
The Communist leader gave a full
account of his life and of his activi-
ties in the German revolutionary
movement. During his testimony he
spoke with great feeling, although it
was evident that it was physical
strain upon him.
Leo Gallagher, attorney for the
International Labor Defense in the
U. S., and counsel for Tom Mooney
in his recent San Francisco trial,
arrived in Leipzig today and is ex-
pected to be in the courtroom when
the sessions open tomorrow.
Vassi Taneff, 36-year- shoe
maker and associate of Dimitroff.
Bulgarian revolutionary leader, whose
bold and defiant testimony on Sat
urday had electrified the courtroom,
testified today just prior to the call
ing of Torgler
Taneff Declares Innocence
His father, Taneff said in response
to question by the court. had been
killed in revolutionary insurrection
in 1906 in a national uprising of the
Macedonians against the Turks. In
February, 1888, he testified, he in
tended to return to Sofia and trav-
eled via Berlin to visit some political
friends, including Dimitroff and Po-
poff. He arrived in the German cap
ital few days before the fire and
was arrested the day after the fire in
a mass raid, together with Dimitroff
and Popoff.
Asked by the court whether he
had talked with the Nazi provoca-
teur, Van der Lubbe Taneff replied
sharply, Il can't understand a word
CT German"
Inter3r3ter Garbles Testimony
Later Elene Dimitroff. sister of the
veteran Bulgarian revolutionist on
| trial with Torgler and the other
Communists, testified that her
brothers activities we're concerned
mostly with the struggle in Bulgaria.
On several occasions she vigorously
a.