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2020 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

Flight and Exile: Paris-Marseille-Lisbon-Havana

verfasst von : Mario Kessler

Erschienen in: A Political Biography of Arkadij Maslow, 1891-1941

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Abstract

After the Nazi seizure of power, Fischer and Maslow escaped. Fischer also managed to extricate her 15-year-old son. He found refuge in England where he stayed permanently, while Fischer and Maslow went to Paris. Once again, Fischer worked as a municipal social worker in the city of St. Denis near Paris while Maslow started a one-man press release agency. Both came into (temporary) close contact with Leon Trotsky. This chapter also discusses Maslow’s literary works and how he and his companion’s roles as defendants in absentia at the Moscow show trial of 1936. After the German army invaded France, Fischer and Maslow left Paris for Marseille and Lisbon. Both tried to immigrate to the United States. But it was only Fischer who got a US visa; Maslow’s application was repeatedly denied. They had to separate. In April 1941 Fischer went to New York while Maslow went to Cuba, the only place where he could go.

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Vorheriges Kapitel The Leninbund: A New Beginning?

Nächstes Kapitel Maslow’s Death

Fischer, “Erinnerungen an die Jahre 1932–1933 (1960),” in: Abtrünnig wider Willen, p. 528.

He issued a report under the name of Gerhard Fischer that was translated into French: “Prisonnier de Nazis. Récit d’un jeune garçon de 15 ans en captivité chez les chemines brunes,” Vu: L’illustré français (1933), No. 285, pp. 1353–1355, and (1933), No. 286, pp. 1393–1395. The corresponding passages in his memoirs are based on this report. See Friedlander, Memoirs, pp. 110–114.

A facsimile of the list can be found in the Wikipedia article “Erste Ausbürgerungsliste des Deutschen Reichs von 1933” (in German).

For the following passages see Fischer, “Autobiographical Notes,” pp. 536–538.

Fischer and Maslow became close to Münzenberg, whose organization they had once criticized for its independence from the party apparatus. For the circumstances of communist exiles in Paris, see also Jean-Michel Palmier, Weimar in Exile: The Antifascist Emigration in Europe and America. Translated by David Fernbach (London and New York: Verso Books, 2006), pp. 184–218, 308–315, esp. p. 310.

See Ruth Fischer, “Trotsky in Paris [1953],” reprinted in: Abtrünnig wider Willen, pp. 499–519, also for the following passages. On Münzenberg, who directed the Communist press and film agencies during the Weimar Republic, see Tania Schlie and Simone Roche (eds.), Willi Münzenberg: Ein deutscher Kommunist im Spannungsfeld zwischen Stalinismus und Antifaschismus (Frankfurt-Main: Peter Lang, 1995). There are two biographies in English: Sean McMeekin’s The Red Millionaire: A Political Biography of Willi Münzenberg, Moscow’s Secret Propaganda Tsar in the West (New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 2003) is very biased; Stephen Koch’s Double Lives: Stalin, Willi Münzenberg and the Seduction of the Intellectuals, Revised Edition (New York: Enigma Books, 2004) is better, but also incomplete. The biography written by Münzenberg’s widow is still the best. See Babette Gross, Willi Münzenberg: A Political Biography. Translated by Marian Jackson (East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 1974).

Ruth Fischer wrote that she and Maslow established contacts to Communist dissidents who lived in Paris, mainly Italians, but also people from Belgium, the Scandinavian countries, Switzerland and Hungary. They were able to maintain contact with friends in Germny until 1937. See Fischer, “Autobiographical Notes,” p. 468.

Houghton Library Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, bMS Rus 13.1.: The Trotskii Collection, File 7790: Leon Trotsky to Ruth Fischer, letter of January 22, 1934.

See ibid., File 7791: Trotsky to Fischer, letter of January 29, 1934.

See ibid., File 9025: Trotsky to Maslow, letter of February 15, 1934.

See ibid., File 7794: Trotsky to Maslow, letter of February 18, 1934.

See ibid.: Trotsky to Maslow, letter of March 1, 1934. The manuscript of the pamphlet must be considered lost; it was impossible to find in either Trotsky’s or Ruth Fischer’s papers at Harvard University.

See Wolfgang Alles, Zur Politik und Geschichte der deutschen Trotzkisten ab 1930 (Frankfurt-Main: ISP, 1987), pp. 180–181. Maslow wrote mainly on foreign issues under the pseudonyms “A. Max” and “Parabellum.” See Unser Wort (First April Week–First May Week, 1934), Nos. 11–15.

Ruth Fischer, “Trotsky in Paris,” Abtrünnig wider Willen, p. 514. Accordingly, Ruth Fischer also signed a letter published in the Trotskyite newspaper La Verité on August 23, 1935, warning of expectations that some of the French Trotskyites put into their hopes to enter the SFIO, the French Social Democratic Party. See Robert J. Alexander, International Trotskyism 1929–1985: A Documented Analysis of the Movement (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1991), p. 265.

Stahl [Arthur Goldstein], “Wo stehen unsere Reserven?” Unser Wort (4. Maiwoche, 1934), No. 18, p. 3.

Parabellum, “Zur Diskussion über die ‘Reserven’,” Idem (1. Juniwoche), No. 20, p. 3.

“Zu Parabellums Trivialitäten,” Idem.

See Alles, Zur Politik und Geschichte, pp. 199–200.

See Alexander, International Trotskyism, p. 421.

See ibid.

See Leo Trotzki, “Der Kirchenkampf unterm Faschismus,” Idem, Schriften über Deutschland. Edited by Helmut Dahmer, Vol. 2 (Frankfurt-Main: E.V.A., 1971), pp. 699–702.

Bulletin [of the German Section of the International Secretariat], November 1935, as quoted from: Alles, Zur Politik und Geschichte, pp. 229–230.

See ibid., p. 231.

See Ursula Langkau-Alex, “Deutsche Emigrationspresse (auch eine Geschichte des ‘Ausschusses zur Vorbereitung einer deutschen Volksfront’ in Paris),” Wulf Koepke and Michael Winkler (eds.), Exilliteratur 1933–1945 (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1988), p. 189. See also Walter F. Peterson, “Das Dilemma linksliberaler deutscher Journalisten im Exil: Der Fall des ‘Pariser Tageblatts’,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, Vol. 32 (1984), No. 2, pp. 269– 288; Lieselotte Maas (ed.), Handbuch der deutschen Exilpresse, Vol. 4 (Munich and Vienna: Carl Hanser, 1990), pp. 155–180.

Josef Weber, as quoted in: Barbara Weinhold, Eine trotzkistische Bergsteigergruppe aus Dresden im Widerstand gegen den Faschismus (Cologne: Neuer ISP-Verlag, 2004), p. 97.

See SAPMO-BArch, DY 30/IV 2/4/92, p. 99: Bestand Zentrale Parteikontroll-Kommission (ZPKK) der SED, 1948–1962 [Auflistung von KPD-Mitgliedern in westlicher Emigration]. See also Bernd-Rainer Barth and Werner Schweitzer (eds.), Der Fall Noel Field: Schlüsselfigur der Schauprozesse in Osteuropa, 2 Vols. (Berlin: Basis-Druck, 2006), pp. 206, 478.

See SAPMO-BArch, RY 1/I 2/3/400, p. 184: Bestand KPD, Politbüro.

See Fischer, “Trotsky in Paris [1953],” reprinted in: Abtrünnig wider Willen, p. 518; Alles, Zur Politik und Geschichte, pp. 251–252.

Retzlaw, originally a supporter of Levi and later leader of the illegal military apparatus of the KPD, had defied Stalin’s course. In exile, his views approached those of Fischer and Maslow. He welcomed the fact that they were now critical of their former ultra-left positions. See Karl Retzlaw’s memoirs: Spartakus – Aufstieg und Niedergang: Erinnerungen eines Parteiarbeiters (Frankfurt-Main: Verlag Neue Kritik, 1971), on Maslow pp. 161–162, 165–168, 170, and passim.

See on Ciliga Philippe Bourrinet, “Nationalistische Barbarei oder Weltrevolution? Ante Ciliga (1898–1992): Lebensweg eines Kommunisten aus Kroatien,” Archiv für die Geschichte des Widerstands und der Arbeit (1994), No. 13, pp. 91–118; and Stephen Schwartz’s afterword to: Ante Ciliga, Im Land der verwirrenden Lüge. Translated by Hansjürgen Wille and Barbara Klau (Berlin: Die Buchmacherei, 2010), pp. 279–302; on Myasnikov see Paul Avrich, “Bolshevik Opposition to Lenin: G. Miasnikov and the Workers’ Group,” Russian Review, Vol. 43 (1984), No. 1, pp. 1–29. Ciliga’s book deals with his arrest in the Soviet Union in the early 1930s. Myasnikov tried to reconcile with Stalin at the end of WWII. He returned to the Soviet Union where he was executed in November 1945.

On Klotz see the impressive biography by Herbert Linder, Von der NSDAP zur SPD: Der politische Lebensweg des Dr. Helmuth Klotz (1894–1943) (Constance: Universitätsverlag Konstanz, 1998).

Doriot had been expelled from the French Communist Party because of his collaboration with Social Democrats and now represented oppositional-communist positions. However, he soon turned to fascism, which led to the end of his contacts with Fischer and Maslow.

Jean-François Gravier, Paris: Le désert français (Paris: Flammarion, 1947), p. 191, quoted in: Antony Beevor and Artemis Cooper, Paris after the Liberation, 1944–1949 (Harmondsworth: Pelican Books, 2004), p. 261.

Ruth Fischer, “My experiences as social worker in France [1942],” in: Abtrünnig wider Willen, p. 441 (sentence slightly modified).

See Hering and Schilde, Kampfname Ruth Fischer, p. 64. She was officially divorced from him in 1940.

See the entry “Vu” in Wikipedia (in French).

See Ruth Fischer Papers, File 2780: A. Maslov, Europe, a weekly analytical synthesis, p. 1. Looking through the (incomplete) vintages of 1936 and 1937 of the journal in the Widener Library at Harvard University, I came across only one article that could possibly be attributed to Maslow. The author, who published under the pseudonym “Spectator,” in November 1936 reported in sometimes pungent language on the suspected interaction between monarchist circles and the Nazis. Spectator, “Hitler: A-t-il un candidat au trône de l’Allemagne?” Vu: L’illustré français (1936), No. 453, p. 1396.

See Ruth Fischer Papers, File 2306: Arkadij Maslow’s letter to Ludwig Lore, August 18, 1941, also published in: Abtrünnig wider Willen, pp. 108–109. Maslow’s individual articles can, therefore, no longer be attributed.

Lutz Winckler deciphered the pseudonym “Malam.” See his essay “Paris-Mythos im Feuilleton,” Hélène Roussel and Lutz Winckler (eds.), Rechts und Links der Seine: Pariser Tageblatt und Pariser Tageszeitung 1933–1940 (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 2002), p. 291.

See Malam, “Pariser Gespräche: Schüler der Banlieue,” Pariser Tageblatt, June 29, 1936.

See Malam, “Pariser Gespräche: Wie die 40-Stunden-Woche sichtbar wird,” ibid., July 3, 1936.

See Malam, “Pariser Gespräche: Die Speisekarte,” ibid., July 7, 1936; idem, “Der Trinkkomment des kleinen Mannes,” ibid., September 9, 1936. Malam’s essays were also published on July 24 and on August 7, 12, 19 and 31.

Richard Suchenwirth’s ‘justification’ for this barbaric act is but one example. See his book Deutsche Geschichte von der germanischen Vorzeit bis zur Gegenwart (Leipzig: Dollheimer, 1939), p. 605. After 1945 Suchenwirth was employed by the Historical Division of the US War Department to investigate the history of the air war.

A. Maslow, “Die Sterilisierung der Deutschen,” Die Neue Weltbühne, Vol. 3 (January 18, 1934), No. 3, pp. 81–82.

A. Maslow, “Sowjetchina, anders gesehen,” ibid., Vol. 3 (May 24, 1934), No. 21, p. 660.

Ruth Fischer Papers, File 2341: German Embassy, Paris, to Foreign Office, Berlin, Report of August 13, 1934 (s. Forster), printed in: Abtrünnig wider Willen, p. 577. In 1937 Forster was suspended from diplomatic service because of his opposition to German military rearmament.

Ruth Fischer Papers, File 2341: German Embassy, Paris, to Foreign Office, Berlin, Report of August 16, 1934, and in: Abtrünnig wider Willen, p. 578. Both photocopied documents were in Ruth Fischer’s possession.

See Carola Tischler, Flucht in die Verfolgung: Deutsche Emigranten im sowjetischen Exil 1933 bis 1945 (Münster: LIT, 1996), pp. 99–100.

Wladislaw Hedeler, “Deutsche kommunistische Historiker während der ‘Säuberung’ des Marx-Engels-Lenin-Instituts in Moskau,” Mario Kessler (ed.), Deutsche Historiker im Exil (1933-1945): Ausgewählte Studien (Berlin: Metropol, 2005), p. 315.

Prozessbericht über die Strafsache des trotzkistisch-sinowjewistischen terroristischen Zentrums, verhandelt vor dem Militärkollegium des Obersten Gerichtshofes der UdSSR vom 19. bis 24. August 1936 (Moskau: Volkskommissariat für Justizwesen der UdSSR, 1936), pp. 106–107.

Ruth Fischer, Von Lenin zu Mao: Kommunismus in der Bandung-Ära (Düsseldorf and Cologne: Eugen Diederichs, 1956), p. 223.

Due to their quasi-conviction in the process, some authors said that Fischer and Maslow were also de jure sentenced to death in Moscow. See, e.g., Martin Ebon, World Communism Today (New York and Toronto: Whittlesey House-McGraw Hill, 1948), p. 159; Kurt Singer, The World’s Greatest Women Spies (London: W. H. Allen, 1951), p. 33 (published in the United States as: The World’s 30 Greatest Women Spies, New York: W. Funk, 1951). However, this was not the case. Ruth Fischer’s personal file in the Comintern archives contains a biographical outline for her and Maslow written on October 3, 1937. A barely decipherable Russian manuscript, put together by an “A. Schommer,” mentions only the known date without mentioning the “terrorist activities” of which Fischer and Maslow were accused in the show trial. See RGASPI, Fund 495, Inventory 205, Personnel File No. 8644 (Fischer, Rut [Ruth]).

See Wadim S. Rogowin, 1937 – Jahr des Terrors. Translated by Hannelore Georgi and Harald Schubärth (Essen: Arbeiterpresse-Verlag, 1998), p. 378. See in detail Wladislaw Hedeler, Chronik der Moskauer Schauprozesse 1936, 1937 und 1938: Planung, Inszenierung und Wirkung (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 2003).

See Leo Sedow, Rotbuch über den Moskauer Prozess 1936: Trotzkis Sohn klagt an (Frankfurt-Main: ISP, 1985), p. 85. This book was part of Leon Trotsky’s counter trial that he organized in his Mexican exile. It is a reprint from the first edition published in Antwerp, Belgium in 1937.

Mitteilungsblatt der Gruppe Internationale (June 1937), No. 3, pp. 4–5, as quoted in: Abtrünnig wider Willen, p. 9.

Mitteilungsblatt der Gruppe Internationale (December 1937), No. 6, p. 9, as quoted in: ibid., p. 10.

Arthur Rosenberg, A History of the German Republic. Translated by Ian F. D. Morrow and L. Marie Sieveking (New York: Russell & Russell, 1965), pp. 84–85.

The real Marie-Luise von Hammerstein had already become a Communist before she met Scholem. See Peter Lübbe, who referred to a letter from her of August 8, 1985 (Abtrünnig wider Willen, p. 12).

Ralf Hoffrogge, A Jewish Communist in Weimar Germany: The Life of Werner Scholem (1895–1940). Translated by Loren Balhorn and Jan-Peter Herrmann (Leiden: Brill Publications, 2017), p. 330.

Four of the seven children of the general, who died in 1943, were part of the anti-Nazi resistance. See Berit Balzer’s afterword to: Arkadij Maslow, Die Tochter des Generals (Berlin: Bebra-Wissenschafts-Verlag, 2011), here pp. 311–312. See also Reinhard Müller, Die Akte Wehner: Moskau 1937 bis 1941 (Berlin: Rowohlt, 1993), pp. 85–86, 282–284, and passim; Annette Vogt, Wissenschaftlerinnen in Kaiser-Wilhelm-Instituten A–Z, 2nd ed. (Berlin: Archiv der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, 2008), pp. 67–69; Ruth von Mayenburg, Blaues Blut und rote Fahnen: Ein Leben unter vielen Namen (Vienna: Molden, 1969), pp. 154–174; Hoffrogge, A Jewish Communist in Weimar Germany, pp. 495–497; and Miriam Zadoff, Werner Scholem: A German Life. Translated by Dona Geyer (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018), pp. 280–283.

Hoffrogge, A Jewish Communist in Weimar Germany, p. 497.

Zadoff, Werner Scholem, pp. 280–281. The 1954 West German spy film Rittmeister Wronski (Captain Wronski), directed by Ulrich Erfurth and starring Willy Birgel, Elisabeth Flickenschildt, Ilse Steppat, Antje Weisgerber and Olga Tschechowa, is loosely based on this story, as is Hans Magnus Enzensberger’s novel The Silences of Hammerstein: A German Story. Translated by Martin Chalmers (London and New York: Seagull Books, 2009).

Peter Lübbe’s verdict can be found in his introduction to: Abtrünnig wider Willen, p. 12.

See Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, Deutsches Exilarchiv 1933–1945, Frankfurt-Main: Maslow’s Correspondence with the American Guild for German Cultural Freedom, July 13, 1938–March 17, 1939. Olden’s letter is dated on July 26, 1938; Gumbel’s letter is dated on August 8, 1938.

Maslow wrote the main part in 1936 and 1937 but made additions in 1939. The three-hundred-page manuscript can be found in: Ruth Fischer Papers, File 2756.

Maslow wrote an “Additional Preface” in October 1939 that is printed in: Abtrünnig wider Willen, pp. 367–370, from which it is quoted here. Original emphasis.

Ruth Fischer Papers, File 2756, p. 236.

Ibid., p. 237.

Ibid., p. 248.

Ibid., p. 301.

Antonia Stern briefly supported this magazine and Maslow’s other journalistic activities financially. She was the wealthy companion of the German Communist Hans Beimler who had died in the Spanish Civil War. See Clara and Paul Thalmann, Revolution für die Freiheit, p. 105 (page number taken from the internet edition of the book).

“Das deutsche Wirtschaftswunder,” Cahiers d’Europe (Janvier 1939), No. 1, pp. 19–20. Friedrich (Fritz) Behrens, a former member of the Socialist Workers’ Party, was part of a clandestine anti-Nazi network and later became a leading economist and communist dissenter in East Germany.

Miliciano [Maslow], “Aus Berichten zurückgekehrter deutscher Freiwilliger in Spanien,” ibid.

A. M. [Maslow], “Die deutsche Expansion und der neudeutsche Imperialismus, 1. Teil,” ibid., p. 4.

Anon. [Maslow], “Voyage au bout de la nuit,” Idem (Fevrier 1939), No. 2, p. 3. The title referred to Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s novel of the same title. Other identifiable contributors to the journal were Ante Ciliga and Gavriil Myasnikov.

See A. Masloff, Russia’s Chief Weakness, in: Manchester Guardian, December 9, 1939 (http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/11286160).

See Bundesarchiv Berlin, Abteilung Deutsches Reich bis 1945 [Federal Archives Berlin, Department of the German Reich until 1945], BA-R 58/3254; RSHA, Bl. 23: Reichssicherheitshauptamt, Zusammenstellung flüchtiger Kommunisten und Marxisten [Reich Security Main Office, Compilation of Volatile Communists and Marxists], Juli 1940, auch enthalten ebenda, 58/2307, Bl. 139. See also SAPMO-BArch, RY 1/I 2/3/110, Bl. 39: KPD, Politbüro (Kaderfragen): Von der Gestapo hektographierte Namensliste über in- und ausländische Mitglieder der KPD (Politburo [cadres]: List of names catalogued by the Gestapo on domestic and foreign members of the KPD], n. d.) Ruth Fischer was listed there under the name of Elfriede Golke; “Religion: mos. [Mosaic].” Ruth Fischer was an atheist.

See for this and the following Ruth Fischer, “The Battle for Maslow’s Visa [1941/42],” Ruth Fischer Papers, File 1662; also in: Abtrünigig wider Willen, pp. 424–440. See also Ruth Fischer’s letter to her son, October 20, 1940, in: Ruth Fischer Papers, File 1331, p. 16.

The decision to renew his identity card depended on the respective police prefect. The applicant had no legal right for renewal. See Dieter Schiller et al., Exil in Frankreich: Kunst und Literatur im antifaschistischen Exil 1933–1945, Vol. 7 (Leipzig: Reclam, 1981), pp. 41–42; Palmier, Weimar in Exile, pp. 184–190. Even conservative and rightist officials often felt that this was unreasonable and sometimes helped the refugees.

See Alfred Kantorowicz, Exil in Frankreich: Merkwürdigkeiten und Denkwürdigkeiten (Hamburg: Christians, 1983), p. 223. Kantorowicz succeeded to immigrate to the United States in 1941.

According to a police report, Münzenberg’s body was found in October at the edge of a forest one kilometer north of Montagne (Isère). See Harald Wessel, “‘…hat sich offenbar selbst umgebracht’: Untersuchungsprotokoll zum Auffinden der Leiche Willi Münzenbergs am 17. Oktober 1940,” Beiträge zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung, Vol. 33 (1991), No. 1, pp. 73–79; Karlheinz Pech, “Ein neuer Zeuge im Todesfall Willi Münzenberg,” ibid., Vol. 37 (1995), No. 1, pp. 65–71.

Ruth Fischer, “Der Kampf um Maslows Visum [1941/42],” Ruth Fischer Papers, File 1662 and in: Abtrünnig wider Willen, p. 425.

See ibid. File 2395: Wendelin Thomas to Fischer and Maslow, letter of September 24, 1940, also in: Abtrünnig wider Willen, pp. 74–75.

The Unitarian Service was not linked to any political organization. It sought to help both pro- and anti-Stalinist as well as other refugees. One of its prominent members, Noel H. Field, became a well-known defendant and key figure in the Stalinist show trials in East Central Europe in the late 1940s and early 1950s. See in detail Barth and Schweitzer (eds.), Der Fall Noel Field.

Guenther Reinhardt, Crime Without Punishment: The Secret Soviet Terror Against America (New York: Hermitage House, 1952). The present author came across Reinhardt’s book when reading the article by Branko Lazitch, “Métamorphoses de Ruth Fischer,” Est et Ouest (October 1–15, 1960), No. 243, pp. 16–17. A rare copy of the journal can be found in the Widener Library of Harvard University.

See Patrik von zur Mühlen, Fluchtweg Spanien-Portugal: Die deutsche Emigration und der Exodus aus Europa 1933–1945 (Bonn: J. H. W. Dietz, 1992).

See Andy Marino, A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), pp. 192–193; Sheila Isenberg, A Hero of Our Own: The Story of Varian Fry (New York: Random House, 2001), p. 111. See also the extensive study by Anne Klein, Flüchtlingspolitik und Flüchtlingshilfe: Varian Fry und die Komitees zur Rettung politisch Verfolgter in New York und Marseille (Berlin: Metropol, 2007).

The story manuscripts can be found in: Ruth Fischer Papers, Files 2713–2765.

See A. Maslow, “[Fragment of a Novel about the Collapse of France],” Ruth Fischer Papers, File 2774, p. 29.

See ibid., p. 39.

U.S. National Archives, College Park (Maryland), Record Group 59, Department of State, Decimal Files, Fischer Ruth, Visa case (January 6, 1941): Immigration visa issued, January 8, 1941. I am indebted to Mr. Eric von Slander, archivist at College Park, to provide me with this document. Interestingly enough, Fischer arrived in New York on a German quota visa, although she was a French citizen by that time.

New York lawyer Max Pearlman paid the travel expenses of $323.33 at the request of the Jewish aid organization HICEM. See Ruth Fischer Papers, File 687, pp. 1–2: Max Pearlman to Ruth Fischer, Letters of April 10 and May 11, 1942. The acronym HICEM was composed of the abbreviations of three organizations, the New York HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), the Parisian Zionist JCA (Jewish Colonization Association) and the former Parisian Emigdirect (United Jewish Emigration Committees of Europe). See Valery Bazarov, “HIAS and HICEM in the System of Jewish Relief Organizations in Europe, 1933–1941,” East European Jewish Affairs, Vol. 39 (2009), No. 1, pp. 69–78.

See Ruth Fischer Papers, File 2313: Maslow’s Letter to Diego Rivera, November 5, 1940, and Federico Bach’s letter to Maslow of January 30, 1941, ibid., File 2279, reprinted in: Abtrünnig wider Willen, pp. 88–89.

Ruth Fischer Papers, File 2300: Maslow to Gerard Friedlander, letter of February 1941, reprinted in: Abtrünnig wider Willen, pp. 91–93, quotation p. 93.

Ruth Fischer Papers, File 2302: Maslow to Emil Julius Gumbel, letter Februar 1941 [no exact date given], also in: Abtrünnig wider Willen, p. 8990.

The visa for the Caribbean island proved to be relatively easy, under the condition that the immigrants stayed out of Cuban politics. Ruth Fischer assured this immediately after her arrival in New York to the Cuban consular officer and, for a fee of $1000 that Dwight Macdonald provided; Maslow received the visa by telegram. See Ruth Fischer Papers, File 1662. Guenther Reinhardt had most likely made the money available.

See A. Maslow, “Ciudad de Sevilla – ein Judenschiff” and “Europäer nach Kuba – tue Geld in Deinen Beutel,” Ruth Fischer Papers, Files 2711 and 2715, in: Abtrünnig wider Willen, pp. 374–379, 379–384.

For the tragic history see Scott Miller and Sarah A. Ogilvie, Refuge Denied: The St. Louis Passengers and the Holocaust (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006).

For the history of Cuba at that time see, e.g., Samuel Farber, Revolution and Reaction in Cuba, 1933–1960 (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1976); Michael Zeuske, Kleine Geschichte Kubas, 4th ed. (Munich: C. H. Beck, 2016).

100

Peter Lübbe was able to locate the following Maslow articles in Carteles: “Europa: Una síntesis analítica semanal” (August 31, 1941), No. 35, pp. 16–17; “La ayuda americana vista como cuestión de transporte” (September 28, 1941), No. 39, p. 72; “El potencial de Guerra Ruso” (October 26, 1941), No. 43, pp. 43–44; “El cáncer que roe al nazismo” (December 7, 1941), No. 49, pp. 48–49. See Abtrünnig wider Willen, p. 19. I was not able to read any of these articles but have listed them in the interest of completeness in the bibliography of this book.

101

Since pure extermination camps did not yet exist men between the ages of 14 and 60 were forced to dig their own graves before being shot by German Einsatzgruppen and Ukrainian “volunteers” along with women and children. In 1942 the Jewish Workers’ Bund located in London documented these mass killings. See Lucy S. Dawidowicz, The War Against the Jews 1933–45, 10th ed. (Harmondsworth: Pelican Books, 1987), pp. 167–168. This documentation confirmed Maslow’s report in great detail. See also Hannes Heer, “Einübung in den Holocaust: Lemberg Juni/Juli 1941,” Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft, Vol. 52 (2005), No. 5, pp. 409–427.

102

See Ruth Fischer Papers, File 2780: A. Maslov, Europe, a weekly analytical synthesis, No. 3, August 3–10, 1941.

103

Ruth Fischer Papers, File 2300: Maslow’s letters to Gerard Friedlander, March 23 and November 12, 1936, also in: Abtrünnig wider Willen, pp. 53, 61.

104

A. M. [Maslow], “Die deutsche Expansion und der neudeutsche Imperialismus, 1. Teil,” p. 13.

105

Ruth Fischer Papers, File 2779: A. Maslow, Europe analyzed daily, August 22, 1941: French Ghettos (orthography slightly corrected). Paul Marion, Maslow’s former ally in the anti-Stalinist left and known as “Doriot’s lieutenant,” also collaborated closely with the Nazi occupants in France. The term “Doriot’s lieutenant” first appeared in a Time article of March 10, 1941. Marion enjoyed a step career as Information Minister under the Vichy regime. He was in custody for several years after the war but dismissed prematurely for health reasons. Doriot was killed in Southern Germany in February 1945 during an Allied air attack. See Gilbert D. Allardyce, “The Political Transition of Jacques Doriot,” Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 1 (1966), No. 1, pp. 56–74; David Littlejohn, The Patriotic Traitors: A History of Collaboration in German-Occupied Europe, 1940–45 (London: Heinemann, 1972), pp. 249, 271–276, and passim.

106

Ruth Fischer Papers, File 2780: A. Maslov, Europe, a weekly analytical synthesis, No. 8, September 7–14, 1941.

107

See ibid., No. 14, October 9–16.

108

Ibid., No. 17, November 9–16.

Titel: Flight and Exile: Paris-Marseille-Lisbon-Havana
verfasst von: Mario Kessler
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Buch: A Political Biography of Arkadij Maslow, 1891-1941
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-43256-0

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-43257-7

Copyright-Jahr: 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43257-7_13

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