Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-08-09

can be trapped, but from q
thousand corners. Let every
action committee and every
unit DO IN anti-Fascist spear
head In itself. Let each group
know that IL docs not night
alone, that thousands of
other groups are In the hght
even though they cannot
readily b seen. Comrades, do
your duty. Long live the
Communist Party!"
The crowd dispersed.
Shortly after 3 o'clock in the
morning the storm troopers
closed in. They carried rifles,
machine guns and gas-gren-
AIDES. The few of our men who
had refused to leave the
building were beaten half 10
death and dragged away to
Jail.
The list of anti-Nszis sched-
uled for arrest had been pre-
pared long in advance by
Heinrich Himmler's machine.
This became clear TO me when
our few operatives in the
Elite Guards had reported
that even the names OF men
who had died shortly before
Hitler became Chancellor
were still on these lists.
In this respect. also, Hmm
Ter had initiated the methods
OF the GPU. We, too, had
prepared lists of persons who
were TO be seized and shot, or
kept as hostages, in the event
of a Communist instruction.
Like the GPU, the Nazi
raiders came in the night.
They took away prisoners,
without informing their rela-
tives whether the captured
men were dead or still alive.
They grabbed the wives and
mothers and children OF flu
gitives as hostages. Out of the
overcrowded prisons filtered
gruesome tales. Comrades
whom I knew, and valued as
friends, had leaped from win
dows TO escape torture, or
were found in parks with their
threats cut, or fished out of
the river - their smashed
heads wrapped in burlap.
MUST FIGHT ON
The terror frightened the
ranks OF the best among US.
! saw il on Firelei.
I'VE must tight on" she
said. I'VE have no time to
weep"
At first, the Gestapo was
raw. Its new personnel was
largely recruited from the
Elite Guards. There were
some trained men among
them. former officers. but the
majority began with no other
assets than cruel fanati-
cism and a fierce will TO tri-
umph.
The former Political Police,
which had contained many
Socialists and a few secret
members of the Communist
Party. had efficiently jumbled
the records before they finally
abandoned their posts at the
Police Department.
The first phase Of the Ges-
tapo raids consisted in the
apprehension Of all militants
as far as they could be
found-whose names appeared
on the blood lists. Many of
the intended victims escaped
capture by changing their
quarters every night.
But this became increas-
ingly difficult. The number of
available cover addresses de-
creased rapidly. The families
in whose households the Ges-
tapo found an active Commu-
mist in hiding were doomed.
Neighbors distrusted each
other. and parents feared
their children.
After the first wave of ar
rests there was a lull. The
blood" lists we're exhausted.
We used the two-day lull to
reorganize our shaken units,
to re-establish several con-
facts, TO discard unstable
partisans, and to supply the
Party's Espionage Defense
with the names Of known
traitors.
Then the Gestapo sprang
anew, and in a different man.
ner. Every member of the
Nazi Party was ordered 10
collaborate with the Secret
Police. InforTners were APP
pointed to ferret out the
secrets OF every factory, every
block and every house. An
avalanche of denunciationS
poured In.
SPIES WORK
Nazi spies who had oper-
ated in the Communist ranks
for years came out into the
open. They were put into mo-
tor-cars, together with a
Gestapo squad. From dawn TO
dark. and all through the
night, these cars criss-crossed
the city.
Whenever the spy saw a
Communist of his acquaint-
ance on the street. he gave a
signal, the car stopped, and
the comrade was arrested. In
a city like Hamburg, which
harbOred moro than 100 000