Evening star., 1953-06-21
Red Secret Police
Jail Thousands Of
East Reich Rebels
(continued From First Page.)

\NOIlIIIIuCQ rIOm cAoC EdsS1
about half Of the neighboring
Buna synthetic rubber plant.
The two plants were major sup
pliers of the Russians 100000
man occupation force.
But it was dispatches released
by the SovietS from behind the
Iron Curtain which indicated to
the West that virtually every
major industry in every major
city was hit hard by the strikes
against Red rule.
Several Million Walk Out.
The information provided by
the Reds themselves made it
clear that several million East
German workers, nearly half Of
the labor force, had walked out
as the revolt swept like wi1dfire
through the zone.
In addition to the attacks on
the gasoline and rubber plants
at Halle, the regime made known
these facts:
A tremendous strike at the
Ernst Thaelmann heavy machine
tool plant, formerly a Krupp
concern, in Magdeburg. A lead
er. Karl Gross, was executed.
Major strikes in the Neptune
Shipyards in the Baltic port of
Rostock, the Warnow-Werft
yards in Warnemuende, the soft
coal and uranium mines
throughout East Germany, the
biggest silk factory of the zone
at Rathenow, the Zeiss optical
plant at Jena and the Leipzig
plant which makes buses and
trucks for the Russian army.
Other Disorders Reported.
From refugees, allied reports
and hints dropped by the East
zone news agency these other
evidences of the giant uprising
filtered through the curtain:
Production stopped at the East
zones only steel plants, in Fur
stenberg-Oder, Cable, Branden-
burg and Hennigsdorf.
Trains halted throughout, with
possibly a half million Reichs-
balm Estate railway employees
affected for a time.
Enraged German workers
beat a Communist security police
officer to death in Rathenow.
Two other police m e n were
hanged in Magdeburg.
Only one top industry of East
Germany was ignored in the
Soviet zone governments por-
trayal of its current situation.
Not a word came out about the
hard coal fields at Zwickau,
known in the West to be d hot
bed Of anti-Communism. The
conclusion reached in West Ber-
lin was that this area was too
badly hit to be discussed pub
licly for propaganda purposes.
The fires of rebellion involved
even some Polish partisans, on
the East German border, West
Berlin sources heard. A story
reached here that the partisans
blew up a Neisse River bridge.
Throughout the zone and in
East Berlin. Soviet martial law
governed the lives of 18 million
East Germans. Two full armored
divisions. the First and 14th,
occupied the Soviet sector of
the former Reich capital.
Mayor Fritz Ebert of East Ber-
lin. Communist son of an illus
trious father who headed the old
Democratic Weimar republic
three decades ago, declared that
his sector was proceeding "in
peaceful work" and that "the
Fascist-inspired plot" had been
broken. He publicly thanked
Russian troops which have re-
placed not only Ebert's puny
machinery but virtually the en-
tire East German government in
a return to the rules of war.
Prime Minister Otto Grotewohl's
Red setup was restricted largely
to words while the, Russians
went about almost the same kind
Of job they were doing in 1945.
But we must separate the
sheep from the wolves" the gov
ernment said in a statement.
"The innocent worker must be
protected and the Fascist West
ern agents must be rooted out
and dealt with according to mill
tary law"
While the Russian moves were
effective, the United States COM
mandant in Berlin, Maj. Gen.
Thomas 6. Timberman. told