The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-12-09
|DimitroH Energies at Arson Trial
AS World Spokesman of Communism
Speaks to the Workers
in Heroic Accents
from Nazi Court

WHEN, after five postponements,
W the date for the beginning Of the
proceedings in connection with the
Reichstag incendiarism was finally
announced to the world in August,
only Ernst Torgler Of the four Com
munists accused was known to any
wide circle Of people. And today? 1t
is hardly too much to say that for
two months now there has hardly
been a newspaper published in any
country and in any language which
has not continually been compelled
TO publish the name of George Dimi-
troff. Still more, Dimitroff himself has
spoken to the world in the columns
of its newspapers. A tremendous
propagandist power is welded by this
name. Dimitroff, as even his most flu
rious opponents are compelled to ad-
init, embodies the essence of what is
known to the world as Communism.
When the protests of world public
opinion compelled the national So
cialist rulers Of Germany to come be-
fore the bar of the world and attempt
to prove the alleged guilt of the Com
muniSt Party and its completely in
the fire, GoebbelS' original plan of
settling everything behind closed
doors and announcing the guilt Of the
accused to the world afterwards, had
to be abandoned. The master of po-
litical propaganda" had to cast
around for compromising material"
to use against the accused.
And what a miserable job he made
of it Who could be found willing TO
assist in erecting the gallows for the
four innocent accused? Who are the
witnesses who remembered" in Sep
TENDER and even in October only that
they knew about the guilt of the &C
cused? Old lags from the prisons OF
Germany, convicted criminals from
the concentration camps, a hungry
journalist whose income had been
attenuated owing to the decline Of
the Hugenberg press, tramps with
pathological tendencies and hySteri-
cal women. Even in the Germany Of
today held down by hayonets and
scourged by the bloody terror of Hit
ler's gangsters no enc else could be
found to take a part in GoebbelS'
masterpiece Of propaganda. These
were the creatures who formed the
front line of Goebbels' roopS-Lubbe,
Grothe and Karwahne.
DUT Goebbels was in error not only
ID about the effect his manuscript
was likely to have, not only about the
capacities of his chief actors, but
also about those who had been cast
for a walking on" role, namely,
the four Communists accused. What
a naive idea the fascist Minister
GoebbelS must have had about the
stuff of which Communist leaders
are made! Poor Goebbels cannot
conceive that men who have been in
prison manacled night and day for
five months, completely isolated from
the outside world and always living
in the shadow of death, continually
threatened with torture and murder,
should be unbroken at the end Of it
all.
But the first time Dimitroff is able
to open his mouth before the court
he declares proudly and defiantly: Il
am here not as the accused, but as
the acuSer!" And In this sentence is
his whole attitude throughout the
process. The defense of his own per-
son, of his own life, is subordinate
matter for him. His aim is not to
get out of the trial as lightly as pos
sible, but, despite the terrible danger
which threatens him, to expose the
real truth about the trial.
The dock Is his platform. From
the dock he attacks fascism merci-
lessly and fiercely. From the dock he
defends Communism brilliantly. He
has his aim firmly in mind and pur-
sues it unswervingly; not only to
prove to the world that the Commu-
mist Party had nothing to do with the
burning of the Reichstag, but to
point again and again to the guilt OF
the national socialists as the real in
cendiaries.
NIMITROFF is the first one to men
~ ton the notorious tunnel. Dini-
troff forces the court to deal again
and again with the accusations in
the Brown Book" Dimitroff calls
scornfully to the court to look for
witnesses on behalf of the defense in
the concentration camps of fascism
Dimitroff pillories the bloody regime
Of terror waged increasingly by fas-
cisn. Through Dinlitroff, man in
the shadow of death, Germany learns
of things which otherwise the Off
cial press would never have mem
toned. Through Dimitroff sounds the
voice of anti-Fascist Germany and
the voice CT international proletarian
solidarity in the struggle against fas-
cism.
The president Of the court, DIR.
Buenger, raves; the public prosecutor
raves; Goering and his fascist press
rave, but Dimitroff continues his
fight against them all unmoved. He
tears down the painful constructions |
of the prosecution, exposes the per-
jured witnesses, reveals the idocy of |
the evidence offered by the prosecu-
ton, and the bourgeois journalists re-
cord that the witnesses for the prose-
cution waver and temporize The mo-
ment they are called upon to face |
his cross-examination
And then the great moment" OF |
the trial comes. Minister Goering ap- |
pears in court with all the pomp of
a film Nero. The presence OF Goering |