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264 | 51 The Murder of Ehrlich and Alter (1943) The New International The New International represented an unusual perspective on the American Left. The journal, published by the Workers’ Party (founded in 1940), celebrated the Bolshevik Revolution and its leaders, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky, yet condemned Stalin’s Russia as a totalitarian country dominated by a new bureaucratic ruling class. One of the many Soviet crimes denounced by The New International—and by virtually all segments of the anti-Soviet Left—was the execution of Henryk Ehrlich and Victor Alter, leaders of the Bund in Poland. The Stalinist crimes against the international labor movement have not ceased with Hitler’s invasion of Russia. Nor has the preoccupation with the greatest war in Russian history eliminated murder as a political weapon in the labor movement by the infamous regime of Cain Stalin. This was once more brought to light with the announcement, a few weeks ago, that Henryk Ehrlich and Victor Alter, leaders of the Jewish Workers Party of Poland,1 seized by the GPU when the Red Army invaded Poland, were secretly executed as agents of Hitler’s Gestapo! The mystery of this case was cleared up when William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, announced to the press that, in response to his inquiries over an extended period of time, he was informed by the Russian Ambassador, Litvinov, of the execution of the two Jewish socialists. Green had, on the “advice” of the State Department, kept this information to himself. War exigencies, don’t you know! Following Green’s announcement, many things were disclosed, all of them pointing to the utter perfidiousness of the Kremlin regime. A mere chronological detailing of the circumstances following the arrests are sufficient to properly assess the nature of this latest Stalinist frameup. The Murder of Ehrlich and Alter | 265 Ehrlich and Alter were seized four years ago. Their arrest undoubtedly was one of the results of the Hitler-Stalin pact. They were “left” social-democrats who, throughout their lives, retained adherence to the general principles of Marxism. They were confused centrists rather than revolutionary internationalists. But, guided by their own concepts of the socialist struggle, they were in direct conflict with Stalinism and all that its reactionary nationalist doctrines signify. Ehrlich’s and Alter’s attempt to organize resistance in Warsaw to the German invader and their general anti-fascist activity in that particular period, led to their incarceration by the GPU. Furthermore, they were arrested as part of Stalin’s policy to destroy the whole pre-war Polish labor movement as inimical to his interests. The announcement that Ehrlich, a member of the Labor and Socialist International, and Alter, a member of the executive committee of the Trade Union Congress, were arrested by Stalin, led to the formation of many international committees to seek their release. In this country, a committee headed by William Green, Philip Murray,2 Dr. Albert Einstein and Raymond Gram Swing,3 repeatedly intervened without result. Wendell Willkie,4 while in Moscow, pleaded in vain with Russian officials for their freedom. The intervention of Eleanor Roosevelt and countless other personages brought not the slightest concession from Stalin’s hangman. Material aid was sent to Ehrlich and Alter, but there was no visible evidence that the food and money ever reached their proper destination. It was quite possible that they were already executed when this aid was sent. Certainly they were already dead while many pleas for their release were made. But the Kremlin, by calculated silence, gave no sign as to the fate of its prisoners. The first release which announced the execution of Ehrlich and Alter stated that they were murdered more than a year ago. This was later denied by Litvinov, who volunteered the information that they were executed only four months previous to the information given in a letter to William Green. No one will really know exactly when the deed was done. But that can only shed light on the cynicism of the murderous regime as it is reflected in their particular case. The thing to be remembered is the deed itself. The execution of Ehrlich and Alter followed the typical GPU pattern. According to Szmul Zygielbojm,5 one of the leaders of the Jewish Workers Party of Poland, and a member of the Polish National Council, they were kept in prison for nearly two years without formal charge and with no apparent disposition of their case. In July, 1941, six...

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