on un-American activities. Two days before the date Eisler was arrested and taken

to Ellis Island on charges of violating the Enemy Alien Act. He was not. presented
with a warrant for his arrest. At the hearing on February 6, Eisler requested permis-
sion to make a short statement before being sworn in, a request which was refused by
Rep. J. Parnell Thomas, and Eisler was cited for contempt of Congress. Following is an
excerpt from a 20-page statement, drawn up shortly before his arrest, in which Eisler
presents his side of the case. He was refused permission to read it.

O February 6, Gerhart Eisler was due to testify before the House Committee

’

tell you, at the beginning: I am not a spy; not a foreign agent; not the ‘boss’
of all the Reds in this or any other country, and that I never did anything to harm
I am a German Com-

“ A . S THE new season of red-hunting has opened today, let me tell you, or try to»

the American people for whom I have a great deal of sympathy.
munis, a political refugee, wanting to go home.

“I am very glad to be able to tell my si f the story at last. A story, invented by
_ provoeateurs, by rabblerousing agitators in order to smear the American progressives,
and to poison the intc:national atmosphere.

I shall not take long, because after 13 wears of bitter exile I want to go back to
Germany instead of wasting my time in dis ussing the slanders, the falsehoods, the non-
sense of a provocateur and of a hypocritic «1 urncoat. I demand that the injustice done
to me, a German anti-fascist refugee, in preventing me from going back where I came
from, shall be at once undone. If red-baiting is to be the new great American pastime,
it‘can be done without me. The world is g ‘*:ng fed up with it; and so am I.

I understand that this committee is a v2ry interesting and remarkable American ex-
periment in political inquistion and persecution. The people everywhere in the world,
and especially we progressive Europeans, look at this experiment partly with bewilder-
ment, and partly, to say it frankly, with contempt.

: . I.understand from many experiences in my homeland and in other countries that
always the red-baiters, the provocateurs and stoolpigeons have a holiday when social
reaction, attacks the workers and all progressive elements. There is nothing specially
American; or French, or Canadian, or Chinese in it. It is the habit of reaction in all
lands, at all times. There are not many national differences between the eggs laid by
‘reactionary hens in different countries. On is similar to the other. Such things come
ain 89, and even the bad smell of it usually disappears.

* This committee is supposed to investigate so-called un-American activities. You
know, of course, that ‘here are quite a few. Americans who have very different ideas
of what are un-American activities. There ere even outstanding Americans who con-
sider such a committee like yours a disgrace to American democratic traditions. —

As far as I am concerned, I am a foreigner, a German anti-fascist, I am not an
American, and I had never the intention to become an American. I never had the am-
bition, nor would this be possible, to behave exactly like an American, or a Russian,
or a Greek for that matter. So a somewhat dogmatic interpretation could classify easily
: everything I did, said or wrote as un-American.‘ In this sense, 95 percent of the. people
of the world who are not Americans, and. have no intention’ to become Americans,
are ‘un-American. ;

But naturally, you cannot investigate the whole world, although someone here may
dream of the century of the investigated min, the century of the Un-American Activities
Committee. The investigation of 140 millioa Americans alone would be quite a job.

So, if you accuse me of not looking upon the world with the eyes of an American,
and especially with your eyes, you are definitely right. I look upon the world with the
eyes of a German Communist, guided by the principles of a German Communist, which
I did not change and would not sell even if I would become an assistant professor on
some American university after having | been instructed, or to use the language of sport,
after having been fixed.

"FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1947

What ever ignoramuses say
about Communists, a Commun-
ist’s first love his his country.
And that is the reason why I,
as a German Communist, can
agree with you if .you call me
un-American. You see, it can-
not be helped, there are people
vyho are not Americans and who
nave their own ways of life.

If the United States would have
been invaded by the Nazi or
Japanese armies, I would have
defended your country against
the invaders in the ranks of
the American citizens.

But all the time I never would
have become an American agent,
I would have remained, as I re-
mained, a German Communist,
hoping .and hoping, as I did,

“that the Germans would © liber-

ate themselves from the Hitler
dictatorship and end this crim-
inal war. A hope, which unfor-
tunately, did not come true. _

You see, as a German Com-
munist I did not say: Right or
wrong my Hitler, my gas cham-
bers, my un-German activities
Committee, my imperialist war...
In this war the right was on the
side of the Americans, the Rus-
sians, the British, and the other
Allies. A Communist patriot
wants to liberate his own coun-
try from all forms of oppression,
exploitation, and backwardness.
but he will never side with his
own native reaction and im-
perialism in their aggressions
against or in the exploitation of
other peoples. ey.

This is, by the way, one of the
reasons why very often we Com-
munists were called foreign
agents by the Nazis and their
henchmen, because we fought
with all our forces against other
peoples, against the Austrians,
Poles, Czechs, etc.

We were especially called by
the German imperialists and
Nazis, agents. of Stalin, agents
of the Soviet Union, because we

' tried to explain to the Germans

that to make war against the
Soviet Union instead of keeping
friendship with the Soviet people
was not only a terrible crime,

_ but must lead at the same time>

to the worst. national catas-
trophe for the German people
in its history. ;

Of course, Gefman Commun:
ists and progressives were also
often called American and Brit
ish agents by the Nazis, because

they thought that your country ~

and your allies deserved victory.
The German red-baiters, the”
German Nazi dictatorship, this
most developed form of a com-

mittee against so-called un-Ger-

‘man activities,

ing. that:

were victorious
over us Reds, over the German
workers, and all other progres-
sive elements in Germany, and
led the Germans along the road
to the abyss.

If I may advise you, take a
lesson from ‘the terrible experi-
ences of Germany. I know you
have the habit of slandering
your Communists as_ foreign
agents as Himmler slandered us
German Communists, because
they fight for friendship with
the Soviet Union. As a German,
I advise you urgently not to lis-
ten to your warmongers. It
would be very terrible for you,
for the Russians,, and for the
whole world. As a German, I
have a special interest in hop-
“your © warmongering
fools will be kept under a lock.
For I do not want to imagine
what would remain of the re-
mainder of a Germany in a
new terrible war. I am afraid
nothing but a kind. of New
Mexican atom bomb desert.

UDENZ told you I am not a.

genuine political refugee, and
I came to the United States to
boss all the Reds. —

What are the facts? In 1939,
shortly. before the outbreak of
the war, I with many thousands
of other anti-fascist refugees,
got arrested in Paris, The men
of Munich who ruled France at
that time, and were leading
France into disaster, arrested
us because we were genuine
anti-fascists. Many of us had
fought as so-called premature
anti-fascists on the loyalist side
in Spain. The men of Munich
who were ready to lead the
great French people into Nazi
slavery were naturally. not soft-
hearted in their treatment of —
foreign anti-fascist refugees.

In their prisons and concen-
tration camps, especially in the.
infamous camp at Vernet, we
were beaten, starved, abused,
and not a few of us were killed.
Then the Nazi armies started to
over-run France. To all the
misery we suffered the danger
arose that we would be ex-
tradited to Hitler Germany, in
order to be tortured and killed.

‘In these critical days there
came’ help. The former presi-
dent of Mexico, General Car-
denas, sent to many of us,’ my-
self included, an invitation to
come to Mexico, offering us

sanctuary there. The diplomatic
representatives of Mexico in
France intervened strongly in
our behalf. Also many decent
Americans demanded from Vichy
the right for refugees of all

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 10