The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-03-17
Murder--Mdd
In Germany
MURDER-ALADE IN GERMANY.
by Heinz LiepmanH. Harper and
Brothers. S2.50.

Brothers. s2.5O.
Reviewed by PHILIP STERLING
NOT one book and not a hundred
can add up the score of Fascist
sayagery which the working class
may have TO settle as it braces it.
self for the final conflict to master
the world. But if any single book
pictures the reign Of Brown horror
in Hitler's Germany with complete
artistic sobriety and graphic ac-
curaey, its is Heinz Liepmann's
book.
Liepmann has not isolated his &C
counts Of torture chambers and
concentration camps from the grow
ing mass poverty, unemployment
and starvation of the German
workers. He has made it clear that
the Brown-shirt terror is not the
unexDlainable doing of madmen but
the deliberate policy Of govern
ment which can MAINTAIN itself in
the face of lengthening labor agency
lines and shortened relief allow
anees only by mass murder.
He has made it clear that the
rubber truneheons and the axes Of
the Storm Troopers and the heads
men descend not only on Jews and
Communists but on the entire work
lngclass of Germany which grows
daily more unified in its hatred of
Fascisn1.
Above all, he has given an inspir-
ing picture of the revolutionary
forces, under the leadership of the
Communist Party which are grow
ing daily more powerful in their
progress toward the armed destrue-
ton of Faseism.
TWO Communists, one of them re-
turned to Hamburg after a long
sea voyage, are discussing the work
of the underground Communist
Party:
"Sinee yeu have been away
there has been great change In
our organization Within a
shert time we have had not only
to discover the defects in the new
apparatus, but also to improve 1t
that we should be able to work
and win new recruits under even
the worst terror
"And2"
"And today our organization Is
almost invineihle You see, COM
rade, fate is repaying our i'm
prisened comrades for the terrible
sufferings the are enduring it
is repaying us, too; never at any
previous time has the movement
made such definite progress. The
Social Democrats are working with
us, and the intellectuals. -"
"They are working for the Com
munist revolution"
mo, the only thing we are all
working at now is against Fascism,
against barbarism, against the Mid
die Ages. You must remember that!
Many of those who are working
with us, especially the intelleetuals
tell us quite openly that they
are not Communists. But they are
against barbarism =.
Thus Liepmann pictures the gath
ering forces which under the lead
ership of tho Communist Party will
wine Fascism from the earth.
In the foreword to his book Liep-
mann declares:
"There is not one character whom
did not know personally, not one
incident, which I did not see with
my own eyes or which was not wit
messed and described to me by some
friend whom I have known for years
and for whose reliability I can
voueh. will answer with my honor,
my livelihood and my life for the
fact that all the incidents in this
book have actually happened"
PROCEEDING from this passion
ate guarantee of his accuracy
Liepmann tells his story simply and
soberly in fctional form which
is dictated by and completely sub
ordinated to the presentation Of his
facts,
The crew of fishing vessel re-
turning to Hamburg after long
voyage gets It's first knowledge Of
the changes which have taken place
in their absence when they see
vessels sailing down the Elbe bear
ing the NaN flag.
Their second introduction to Ma
tional Socialism comes when they
fish q bloody but still living body
out Of the water and restore 1t to
life. The man whom they have thus
saved thanks them for their kind
ness and quietly throws himself
overheard again rather than face
The possibility Of re-capture by his
Nazi terturers.
Liepmann follows captain and
crew ashore to their respective fates
In Brown Houses and Nazi con-
centration camps, and two of them
into the underground Communist
Party.
Fervent in his regard for fact lest
any liberal try to eyade the truth
by crying "exaggeration" Liepnann
intersperses his fictionized narrative
with newspaper clippings, letters,
documents.
A jacket blurb compares Murder
Made in Germany" with "All
Quiet on the Western Front" The
comparison is unthinkable. Heinz
Liepmann's book contains no aim
less sentimentalism, no heroics, no
directienless WeItschmerz. Tt is
realistic and purposeful.
1t inspires to thought and action,
1t is literature as weapon in the
class struggle.
1o:0o-How Educatson Entertsins in the