Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-07-21
By JAN VALTM

DlillSil 4NdliOildi OillOii VI Sotd-
men.
In Hamburg, the agent who
cultivated contacts in the
Soviet merchant marine was
a certain Andersen. a Scan
dinavian of cunning and
ability. Comrade Schmidt
was sent from Moscow TO
carry out a major operation
on Mr.. Andersen. A squad of
German Communists was as
signed to assist Schmidt in his
undertaking.
They logged every step Mr..
Andersen was taking. They
burglariZed his Offices on the
Schaarsteinweg (only a few
houses away from the mari
time headquarters of the
Nazis, the Stellahaus) and
found a way of intercepting
Andersen's mail.
ThlS brought certain results.
There was a reshuffling of the
crews of seven or eight Soviet
steamers, and a few Russians
who had been popular figures
in the International Club dis
appeared. In February. 1882.
arrangements were made TO
abduct Mr.. Andersen and take
him to the Soviet Union
aboard a Russian vessel.
From Schmidt, whose brood
ing eyes always seemed TO be
searching the floor in front of
his feet. and Hermann Schu-
bert, ReichStag deputy and
Hamburg Party chief, I re-
ceived the order to put 10 re-
liable men from my Apparat
at the disposal of Karl
Stevens, known as Punch"
Stevens was one of the most
ruthless functionaries in the
espionage defense department.
Stevens and his crew of 10
were to seize Mr.. Andersen.
MET BY SEAMEN
But Andersen had been in
formed by his own spies of
what was afoot. When Stevens
and his raiders burst into
Andersens Office early one
morning. they were met by a
mob of British seamen armed
with clubs and brass knuckles.
A fierce hand-to-hand fight
ensued. The office was de-
molished and Mr.. Andersen
lay under a table with a
broken skull. The police
arrived and the raiders were
obliged to scatter and flee.
Mr.. Andersen. after a sojourn
in the hospital, returned TO
England.
In retaliation, a strong band
of armed men raided the In
ternational Club in Hamburg.
They came at night, at time
when the club was crowded
with seamen of many nations
and their girls. Next morn
ing. l counted some 200 chairs
the legs of which had been
broken off by men who had
used them as weapons against
the assailants.
AS usual, the police arrived
after the fracas had ended.
and their questioning was
only a perfunctory gathering
of material for an official re-
port. Shortly afterwar
British newspapers, reporting
the assault on Andersen,
characterized the Interna-
tional Club in Hamburg as a
den of assassins."
Punch" Stevens vanished
from the Hamburg waterfront
10 evade apprehension by
police for another crime.
Years later, while l was in
Nazi prison, / learned from
fellow-prisoners that in the
Spring of 1884 a Gestapo
agent had recognized Stevens
wearing storm troopers
uniform.
TORTURE CONFESSION
He was seized and ques-
toned. Under torture, Stevens
admitted that he had joined
the Nazi formations as a
GPU assig mt. Three
months later the Sender
gericht-the special tribunal
condemned him to life i'm
prisonment.
o. For all that, he was more
fortunate than his chief,
Hermann Schubert, one of
the pillars of German COM
munism. who fled to Russia.
where he became professor
at the Lenin School. To-
gether with many other prom
inent Communist exiles, Com
rade Schubert was executed in
the dungeons of the GPU
during Stains great purge.
During the first six months
of 1882 four abductions over
the sea route were carried out
by the German Apparat of the
GPU in Hamburg. The fate
of one of the four victims
touched me TO the quick. The
long arm of Stain reached