Still Prisoners • The last official concession to the wretched
Van der Lubbe was the suturing of his severed head to his shoulders, in which condition his corpse was allowed to be buried by his relatives last Monday. Meanwhile, Ernst Torgler, the Communist leader, and Dimitroff and the two other Bulgarians, all of whom were acquitted by the Lciptig Supreme Court a month ago, are still in prisoii. The dilemma of the authorities is obvious. They fear, with good reason, that if the prisoners are allowed to leave Germany they will be acclaimed as heroes and become effeetiVe agents. of anti-Nazi propaganda. So they arc kept in prison,. and the ideals of justice, vindicated as it seemed at Leipzig, are spurned by the rulers of the new Genitally. Probably there is a conflict among Ministers, and the continued imprisonment of four innocent men must be represented as a triumph for General Goering. It is true no doubt that thousands of other innocent men are in prison in Germany today, but they have not been declared innocent by the highest tribunal in the land. * * * *
Previous page
