Hearings regarding the communist infiltration of the motion picture industry. Hearings before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eightieth Congress, first session. Public law 601 (section 121, subsection Q (1947)

COMMUNISM IN MOTION PICTUKB: INDUSTRY 497 Mr. Brecht. No, it is not quite according to the story. Mr. Striplixg. Because he would not bow to discipline he was murdered by his comrades, isn't that true? Mr. Brec'Ht. No; it is not really in it. You will find when you read it carefully, like in the old Japanese play where other ideas were at stake, this young man who died was convinced that he had done damage to the mission he believed in and he agreed to that and he was about ready to die in order not to make greater such damage. So, he asks his conu'ades to hel]) him, and all of them together help him to die. He jumps into an abyss and they lead him tenderly to that abyss, and that is the story. The Chairman. I gather from your remarks, from your answer, that he was just killed, he was not nmrdered ? Mr. Brecht. He wanted to die. The Chairman. So they kill him? Mr. Brecht. No ; they did not kill him — not in this story. He killed himself. They supported him, but of course they had told him it were better when he disappeared, for him and them and the cause he also believed in. Mr. Stripling. Mr. Brecht, could you tell the committee how many times you have been to Moscow? Mr. Brecht. Yes. I was invited to Moscow two times. Mr. Stripling. Who invited you ? Mr. Brecht. The first time I was invited by the Volks Organization for Cultural Exchange. I was invited to show a picture, a docujnentary picture I had helped to make in Berlin. Mr. Stripling. What was the name of that picture ? Mr. Brecht. The name — it is the name of a suburb of Berlin, Kuhle Wampe. Mr. Stripling. While you were in Moscow, did you meet Sergi Tietyakov — S-e-r-g-i T-r-e-t-y-a-k-o-v ; Tretyakov ? Mr. Brecht. Tretyakov; yes. That is a Russian playwright. Mr. Stripling. A writer? Mr. Brecht. Yes. He translated some of my poems and, I think <me play. Mr. Stripling. Mr. Chairman, the International Literature No. 5, 10?>T, published by the State Literary Art Publishing House in Moscow had an article by Sergi Tretyakov, leading Soviet writer, on an interview he had with Mr. Brecht.''^ On page 60, it states : He is quoting Mr. Brecht — "I was a member of the Angsburjj Revolutionary Committee,'' Breebt continued. "Nearby, in Munich. Levine raised the banner of Soviet power. Aug.sliurg lived in the reflected glow of Munich. The hospital was the only military unit in the town. It elected me to the revolutionary committee. I still remember Georg Brem and the Polish Bolshevik Olshevsky. We did not boast a single Red guardsman. We didn't have time to issue a single decree or jiatiitnalize a single bank or close a church. In 2 days General Epp's troops tame to town on their way to .Munich. One of the members of the revolutionary committee hid at my house until he managed to escape." He wrote Drum at Night. This work contained echoes of the revolution. The drums of revolt persistently sunnnon the man who has gone home. But the man prefers (juiet i>eace of his hearthside. The work was a scathing satire on those who had deserted the revolution and toasted tliemselves at their fireplaces. One should recall that K-ipp ^ See appendix, p. .")50, for exhibit 9.'