Gathering Faggots

East Germany is apparently to be the scene of the next big Communist purge trial. Already the faggots are being gathered. The chief sacrificial victim seems to be East Germany's mouthy little propaganda boss, Gerhart Eisler, the former Comintern agent who jumped bail in the U.S. and stowed away on board the Polish liner Batory (TIME, May 23, 1949). Last week Eisler was fired and his ministry dissolved.

Under the headline LESSONS DRAWN FROM THE SLANSKY TRIAL, the official organ of the East German Communist Party, Neues Deutschland, indicated that some other victims are being spotlighted. Among them: Kurt Mueller, a West German Communist accused of "contacting foreign Trotzkyites like Ruth Fischer" (Eisler's estranged sister), and Paul Merker, who is a Jew, charged with "harboring the Zionist viewpoint" and acting like "another Slansky." The accusations suggested that Jewish Communists with Western, and particularly U.S., "connections" would be used as scapegoats for East Germany's economic woes. The role seemed tailor-made for Gerhart Eisler.

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