Michigan Remembered

The 150 students crowded about the Ann Arbor dormitory that winter night in 1947 were in a boisterous mood. They had cut off the dormitory's electricity were shouting up at a second-story window and bombarding it with snowballs. Their target: Communist Gerhart Eisler, guest of Michigan Youth for Democratic Action.

Inside, Communist Eisler turned to the group of "progressives" and student reporters about him. "This is just like Germany under Hitler," he said, shaking his head piously. "I fought for freedom in Europe and will fight for it wherever I am. All I want here is what is every man's right--a chance to explain my views."

Students in the room listened rather sympathetically. Two of them--Sophomores Don McNeil and Al Blumrosen--never forgot Eisler's words. They thought of them three weeks ago, when they read that an East German student named Hermann Josef Flade, 18, sentenced to decapitation for distributing anti-Communist posters, had defied the Russian zone court with the cry: "I love freedom more than my life!"

Last week, McNeil and Blumrosen, now graduate students at Michigan, wrote Gerhart Eisler, who is now a big shot in East Germany, a letter:

"We remember your visit to the University of Michigan in 1947. We remember how you were sorely upset when some students protested against your speaking here. Do you remember standing up for freedom of speech and expression when it was your view that was unpopular? Do you remember how we believed that even you, a Communist, should be allowed to express your views? Do you remember saying that you were fighting for such freedoms?

'You are now in a position of authority in East Germany ... You are in a position to show the whole world just how strongly you are willing to fight for freedom. You can help save Flade from this death sentence."

The Michigan students never got an answer from Eisler. This week an East German appellate court, taking into account Hermann Flade's age, commuted his sentence to 15 years in prison, where the Communists will undoubtedly try to change his mind.

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