Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-08-16
Out of the Night

"Now all Copenhagen will
know that I have a lazy WIFE"
know that ! have q lazy wife,"
I took the express via
Malmo to Goeteborg. the
headquarters of the striking
seamen. Harold Svensson,
the Swedish customs officer in
the GPU service, received me
cordially. Less than an hour
after my arrival in Goeteborg.
/ was in conference with
Gustav Holmberg. Of the
Swedish Central Comintern.
With him were two other
men. One of them was
George Hegener. Jensen's chief
of staff. His thick body was
no impeachment to his mobility.
He possessed a disarming
smile, a liking for practical
jokes, and years Of experience
in the Comintern service. The
other was Bertil Berg.
native of Malmo. and the
chief iiaison man between the
GPU operatives and the Com
munist Party on the coast of
south Sweden.
He was young. and he was
audacious. Cold, almost
colorless eyes gave his hand
some boyish features an APP
pearance of disquiet ing
cruelty. Both had been sent
TO Goeteborg two weeks
earlier to execute a coup
against the recalcitrant Com
munist management of the
thriving restaurant of the
Goeteborg workers Club
which occupied two floors Of
the Rialto Building. the
largest edifice in twon.
AROUSES PRESS
With helpers recruited from
the military organization of
the Swedish Party, the two
emissaries had engineered an
exploit which had thoroughly
aroused the press in all the
Scandinavian countries. The
seamen's" strike was under
way, and Hegener and Berg
seized the opportunity to
combine a terrorist enterprise
with a cunning determination
of the Workers Club.
A steamer. the KEEL, had
been manned by strike break
efs The ship lay anchored
in the outer harbor. One
night Bertil Berg hired a
motor launch. loaded it with
party guerrillas, mad drew
alongside the Kjell. The
GPU raiders boarded the ship
and overpowered the crew.
They selected five of their VIC
Tins, tied them hand and foot,
and flung them into the wait
ing launch.
Once ashore, the kidnapped
men were loaded into a motor
car and driven to the Rialto
Building. Here, before a
crowd Of customers in the
restaurant, they were brutally
manhandled, quickly dumped
into a small truck, and
whisked away.
The Swedish authorities
gave general alarm. The
police turned out in full force
10 scour the country for the
missing quintet. without re-
suits. The Workers Club
was promptly raided and
nearly 200 persons who had
had nothing to do with the
affair were arrested. From
Trondheim TO Copenhagen,
from Esberg 10 Stockholm,
the front pages OF the press
described the kidnapping as the
most sensational crime COM
mitted in Scandinavia for
many years. Day after day,
they screamed the question:
"Where are the men from
the Kjell?"
They were found five days
after they had been abducted.
Stripped of their clothing.
bleeding and bruised, they
came limping out of the woods
far in the interior of Sweden.
Not long afterward the Goete-
borg Workers Club was closed
by the police. The GPU had
achieved its aim.
WHY" the manager asked
the Goeteborg chief of police.
Because Of the crimes COM
mitted here" the official re-
piled.
DEL III DCls was oi Cotcd.
He denied everything, and
openly defied the court. He
was convicted, not of kid
naping, but of sedition and
sabotage. At a later stage of
the strike, Richard Jensen.
arriving in Sweden to speak
at a national conference of
strike comm il tees, was
arrested on the train BY
agents of the state police. He
was locked into the Goete-
borg Jail and charged with
having been the originator OF
the KEEL affair"
Jensen fatty denied that he
had ever been connected with
the Comintern; he was a
trade union man. pure and