Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-07-12

building up for myself an in
dependent existence within
the law. Firelei was stunned
by my recklessness. My
mother was deeply hurt by my
treachery.
Wollweber was on one OF
his tours of inspection to all
the Communist units in the
transport industry of Central
Europe. The man was UNI
canny. No detail, no weakness
escaped him. He was a beast
with the brain of a malevolent
scientist. There was nothing
he feared. except publicity. I
said to him good-naturedly:
They call you the Little
Lenin." but you're much moro
like Stain than Lenin."
At that Wollweber stopped
short.
"What makes you think
that:" he asked, showing his
tobacco-stained teeth in
grin.
"Well," I said warily, "Com-
rade Lenin was always before
the masses"
what have you got against
Comrade Stalin:" Wollweber
scowled.
Nothing" I said.
LETS BE HAPPY"
"Comrade Stain is the
greatest living statesman"
Wollweber declared, as II he
were sentencing some one to
be hung. mo one who ques-
tions this assertion can ever
be used In q vital function"
That evening, the days
work done, Ernst Wollweber
said to me:
"Now let's 60 and be
happy"
"What is II that you need
to be happy"
"A quiet place, where q man
can let 60 Of the life-lines. and
drink q case of beer in peace"
/ laughed. I invited Woll-
weber TO my quarters in the
proletarian Westenda of the
city. I bought two cases of
beer and cajoled the landlady
into preparing a large amount
Of Bratwurst and potato salad.
Wollweber arrived at 9.
Always suspicious, he sent his
secretary ahead to investigate
the house before he entered il
himself. The secretary was a
small girl of 20. fairly attrac-
tive but tight-lipped, and de-
voted to her master like a
well-trained dog.
Wollweber was a heavy
drinker. though he hardly
ever touched drop of alco-
hol unless he felt himself per-
fectly safe from the long arms
of his many enemies. This
time he drank without re-
straint; his small. cleaning
black eyes fastened them
selves on Firelei.
With a few swift strokes.
she drew a caricature of the
plainly amorous Wollweber
and named it "Cannibal look
ing for a bride" Wollweber
guffawed. but the epithet
"Cannibal" became as popu-
lar as that of Little Lenin."
TALKED OF YOUTH
WofIweber talked of his
youth. Early in the Great War
his father, a miner. had been
killed on the Russian front,
and Ernst had become a MEM
Der of the Socialist Youth at
the age Of II.
His trade had been that of
a riverman. He had piled the
German waterways smuggling
defeatist propaganda from
Berlin TO the western front
until, one day. he helped a
group of "activists" sink a
number OF cement barges in a
canal in Belgium to block the
transports of war material to
the front.
The Socialists expelled him
for his radicalism, and Woll-
weber joined the Spartakus
Bund and, at the same time.
volunteered for the Imperial
Navy. He had fought in the
Battle of Jutland, and had
then become one of the chief
organizers of the final mutiny
Of the German feet.
Wollweber boosted of his
proves both as a revolution
list and a man, and all the
while he edged himself closer
TO Firelei. His little secre-
tary-mistress watched him
like a hypnotized mouse.
The drinking bout ended
suddenly. Firelei, Helen and
/ decamped, seeking emer-
gency quarters in a hotel and
leaving the Little Lenin"
alone in charge of my abode.
Returning next morning to
see what had happened to my
chief. found he had managed
to sober up.
BAH" he snarled when we
were alone. latter a night like
this 1 could be sick. Life Is a
leprQus hell-hole. Unsatisfac-