Berthold Brecht

Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (February 10, 1898 – August 14, 1956) was the greatest playwright of the 20th Century. Wait, let me rephrase that. Berthold Brecht was the playwright of the 20th Century. That's more accurate. The darkest, bloodiest period of human history. A century so packed with misery, betrayal and horror, we ended it a year early. And Brecht knew it, and wrote plays about it.

Life of Galileo, 2011
Cleveland Play House

Yes, for those of you paying attention, the inaugural production of Cleveland Play House in the newly redesigned Allen Theatre was written by Berthold Brecht, though they have worked very hard to make sure no one knows that (see marquee, right.)

Originally written in the late 1930s, and revised during Brecht's time in California during the late 1940s, this Cleveland Play House production of Life of Galileo is painfully relevant. It could have been written today. Seriously. That does not mean the rap sequence was necessary, I really wish they hadn't done that.

(Capsule review: Paul Whitworth is delightful and heartbreaking in the lead role, and he is well-supported by the professional company, and a highly satisfying design team. Go see it. For real.)

Galileo discovers the moons of Jupiter. The fact that an interstellar body can have its own satellites thrown into question an Earth-centered universe. When he invites the powers-to-be to gaze into his telescope, as evidence, as proof, to define fact, they ask "Why?"

And so it is today. Why look? What is the reason? What is the result of learning truth? What will happen if we discover that everything we know is wrong? What will happen? Better not to look.

In the United States, Brechtian is a word which can mean all kinds of things; cold, stagey, artificial. Apparently, though Brecht loved the theater, he thought audiences should have a miserable, awful time at the theater. This is of course nonsense. His texts belie this fact. He stood in opposition to "realistic" theater, where we are supposed to forget we are watching a play. But stagecraft is a central concern of his work, and the best productions of his plays are those which are active, passionate, aggressive, hilarious -- alive.

Caucasian Chalk Circle
(Théâtre de Complicité, 1997)

My wife and I saw Caucasian Chalk Circle at the National Theatre:

"… produced with a great sense of play, humor, and adventure. In the round. A large company playing lots of roles … some of them were only there to be musicians, but they also joined in for crowd scenes and to help create “the set” … using long, study poles, they made spears and guns, but also a rickety bridge and even made a river using them.

"The creative use of props and movements. You can be anywhere."
- personal journal, June 15, 1997

Brecht was called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, and did appear on October 30, 1947 where he denied membership in the Communist Party. The very next day, he left the United States forever, eventually settling in East Berlin. As Brecht illustrates in Galileo, fear is a much more powerful motivating factor than honor, nobility or compassion.

Then again, in Caucasian Chalk Circle he suggests the opposite.

Cleveland Play House presents "Life of Galileo" by Berthold Brecht at the Allen Theatre in Playhouse Square, September 16 through October 9, 2011.

On the Waterfront

On the Waterfront was directed by Elia Kazan and starred Marlon Brando as a dock worker who acts as a whistleblower against elements of organized crime among longshoremen. In 1954 this film, its director, leading actor and "Supporting Actress" (in a lead role) Eva Marie Saint won Academy Awards for their work.

In 1952 Kazan had testified before the House Committee on Un-American Activities and named eight members of the Group Theatre who had been Communist Party members or sympathizers during the Depression. This act was part inspiration for Arthur Miller's The Crucible, and led to Kazan's being ostracized from the Hollywood community for the rest of his career.

In 1999 Kazan received a lifetime achievement award, which was fairly controversial event as many members of the motion picture community, including plenty who did not live through the events in question, chose to sit and not applaud.

Many have suggested that this slighting of Kazan was inappropriate, especially as Hollywood warmly welcomed Charlie Chaplin home for a lifetime achievement award after years of exile as a result of the Red Scare. As Los Angeles film critic Kenneth Thran put it, "We applauded when the great Chaplin finally had his hour. It’s now time for Elia Kazan."

Because having a personal political philosophy is exactly the same as identifying others' political philosophies before a hostile government committee. But I sarcastically digress.

Kazan chose this project in response to his own persecution by those who judged his actions, not least of whom his collaborative partner, Arthur Miller. Marlon Brando as failed boxer Terry Malloy, doing odd jobs for a corrupt union boss, gently tending his flock of pigeons, is a troubled and sympathetic figure, raising pigeons and trying to get by. The most familiar, oft-imitated line is "I coulda been a contender," but it's what Brando says next -- the plaintive, "I coulda been somebody" -- that rings mournfully in my ears. Terry's decision, after he witnesses a murder, to testify in court against the union bosses, is the central conflict of the movie.

How this down-and-out lug daring to finger murderous gangsters compares with the artistically and financially successful Kazan identifying those who never committed a crime, I don't know. But we all like to think of ourselves as the underdog. Especially the gangsters, you know?

Sources:
FilmSite.org
ModernTimes.com

Communist Activities in the Cleveland, Ohio, Area (con't.)

TUESDAY AFTERNOON—JUNE 5, 1962

United States House of Representatives, Subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities, Washington, D.C.

PUBLIC hearings

The subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities reconvened at 2 p.m., Hon. Francis E. Walter (chairman) presiding.

Subcommittee members present: Representatives Walter, Doyle, Scherer, Johansen, Bruce; also present Representative Schadeberg.

The Chairman. Call your next witness.

Mr. Nittle. Would Julia Brown please resume the stand?

TESTIMONY OF JULIA C. BROWN— Resumed

Mr. Nittle. Mrs. Brown, the committee would like to turn briefly to the organization of the Communist Party structure in Cleveland, Ohio. This committee last November received a great deal of testimony with respect to the Comnuuiist Party organization nationally and with respect to its international ties. Your long experience in the Communist Party would indicate that you miglit well add some details, at least, to our store of knowledge, or miglit confirm certain conclusions that can be reached based upon such testimony. The evidence indicates that the party today persists as it was originally conceived by Lenin, and slavishly operates upon the principles laid down by him. Lenin pointed out that the party was not a party of reform. He confirmed that it was not a democratic party, but a revolutionary organization, organized for rebellion and agitation and must therefore be, and I now quote Lenin :

* * A small, compact core, cousistiug: of reliable, experienced and hardened workers, with responsible agents in the principal districts and connected by all the rixles of strict secrecy * * *

He further stated that it must consist of people who "will devote to the revolution not only their spare evenings but the whole of lives," and must consist chiefly of persons engaged in revolutionary activities as a profession. This kind of party, he declared, must be organized "from the top," a "strictly centralized," chain-of-command type of organization, and disciplined like an army. We should like to record your experience, and in order to establish your further competency to testify, at least with respect to certain echelons of the Communist Party hierarchy, I ask you the question : Did you obtain an official position of leadership of any kind in the Cleveland area organization of the Communist Party?

Mrs. Brown. I was treasurer of five clubs in the Northeast Section, and also treasurer of the Sojourners for Truth and Justice.

Mr. Nittle. As treasurer of five clubs, you may well be described as section treasurer ; is that correct?

Mrs. Brown. Yes. That is right.

Mr. Nittle. Who was the chairman of the section during the time you were section treasurer?

Mrs. Brown. Jean Krchmarek.

Mr. Nittle. When did you become section treasurer?

Mrs. Brown. In the middle l950's.

Mr. Nittle. And remained as section treasurer until when?

Mrs. Brown. Until 1960.

Mr. Nittle. And did Jean Krchmarek, who is the wife of Anthony Krchmarek, the Ohio party chairman, remain also as section leader during the period you were acting as section treasurer?

Mrs. Brown. Yes, she did.

Mr. Nittle. Was she acting in that capacity at the time you left Cleveland and went to the West Coast?

Mrs. Brown. She was.

Mr. Scherer. Is that the witness who just testified here a few moments ago?

Mrs. Brown. This afternoon she testified.

Mr. Nittle. What was the location of this section? What area did it cover in Cleveland?

Mrs. Brown. Well, the central area was included in the Northeast Section, and it was in the Glenville area of Cleveland.

Mr. Nittle. May we refer to the section of which you were treasurer then, hereafter, as the Northeast Section of the Communist Party organization in Cleveland?

Mrs. Brown. Yes.

Mr. Nittle.. Did you have what was known as a Section Committee?

Mrs. Brown. Yes.

Mr. Nittle. What did that consist of?

Mrs. Brown. It consisted of the heads of the five clubs and officers of the section.

Mr. Nittle.. The Section Committee, did I understand you to say, consisted of the heads or leaders of each of the five clubs and the section officers?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Nittle. When the leadei-s of tlie five clubs would meet together with you and Jean Krchmarek, that was known as a Section Committee meeting?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Scherer. These meetings you are talking about — can you distinguish them from the social gatherings that you talked about?

Mrs. Brown. Yes, sir. Yes, indeed.

Mr. Scherer. Were they entirely different?

Mrs. Brown. Entirely different. The section and club meetings are secret meetings that no one else can attend.

Mr. Scherer. But the social gatherings, you said this morning, are attended by Communists and non-Communists?

Mrs. Brown. Well, mostly Communists; a few non-Communists.

Mr. Scherer. That is where you said they raised money?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Scherer. I was wondering how they raised money at these social gatherings.

Mrs. Brown. Well, they sold liquor and food.

Mr. Scherer. Sold liquor?

Mrs. Brown. And food ; drinks and food. They sold them by the drinks.

Mr. Scherer. Did they raise their money any other way?

Mrs. Brown. Well, they did have a donation at the door, too.

Mr. Scherer. Is that all?

Mrs. Brown. Well, that is all I can think of at this time.

Mr. Nittle. The club leaders who met with you and Jean Krclimarek at a meeting, which would be called a Section Committee meeting — would that group have any privileges with respect to laying down club policy?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Nittle. What matters would you discuss in section meetings?

Mrs. Brown. Well, just how to operate the clubs, and the distributing of leaflets, and the different social affairs that were to be given to raise money for the clubs and the Communist Party, and what places to infiltrate, and directions for infiltration.

Mr. Nittle. Who told the club leaders in the section meetings what was to be done?

Mrs. Brown. Jean Krchmarek was the head of the section, and the orders came from Jean Krchmarek.

Mr. Nittle. Do you mean to say that the final decision rested with Jean Krchmarek, when you say that orders came from her?

Mrs. Brown. Yes, for the section ; yes, indeed ; and then they were handed down to the leaders of the clubs.

Mr. Nittle. So that the section meeting was simply a means of bringing the club leaders into conference with Jean Krchmarek, so that she could direct them as to the activities they would undertake?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Nittle. Now, where did Jean Krchmarek get her orders?

Mrs. Brown. Well, I didn't see anyone give Jean Krchmarek her orders, but I am sure she got them from the next top, which was the state, or the district.

Mr. Nittle. Was that her husband, Anthony Krchmarek, chairman of the Communist Party of the State of Ohio, that you are referring to?

Mrs. Brown. Anthony Krclimarek is the husband of Jean Krchmarek, yes.

Mr. Nittle. Where would her husband, Anthony Krchmarek, get his orders?

Mrs. Brown. Anthony Krchmarek would get his orders from the national office, in New York.

Mr. Nittle. So that the orders originated at the national headquarters of the Communist Party, were then transmitted down to the Ohio District of the Communist Party, the chairman of which was Anthony Krchmarek. He would pass that order down to the section leader, who was Jean Krchmarek, and she would pass this order down, then, to the club leaders, who wouki inform finally the people who constituted the clubs, the rank and file.

Mrs. Brown. That is correct. That is correct.

Mr. Nittle. I might note for the record, Mr. Chairman, that the committee hearings last November showed where the National Committee of the Communist Party got its orders. I think the hearings conclusively established that the orders to the headquarters of the National Committee of the Communist Party in the United States came directly from Moscow.

Mr. Doyle. As a matter of fact, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the registration and disclosure provisions of the Internal Security Act of 1950, in its recent decision in the case of the Communist Party of the United States, Petitioner v. Subversive Activities Control Board (367 U.S. 1), decided June 5, 1961. At page 111 f ., the Supreme Court pointed out that the Congress in 1954 enacted the Communist Control Act (68 Stat. 775), which declares in its second section : The Congress hereby finds and declares that the Communist Party of the United States, although purportedly a political party, is in fact an instrumentality of a conspiracy to overthrow the Government of the United States.

. . . [T]he policies and programs of the Communist Party are secretly prescribed for it by the foreign leaders of the world Communist movement. . . . [I]ts role as the agency of a hostile foreign power renders its existence a clear present and continuing danger to the security of the United States. . . .

At page 112, the Supreme Court declared : First: We have held, supra, that the congressional findings that there exists a world Communist movement, that it is directed by the Communist dictatorship of a foreign country, and that it has certain designated objectives, inter alia, the establishment of a Communist totalitarian dictatorship throughout the world through the medium of a world-wide Communist organization, §2(1), (4), are not open to re-examination by the Board. We find that nothing in this violates due process.

Mr. Nittle. As section treasurer, did you actually have anything to do with party policy?

Mrs. Brown. No, indeed, I did not.

Mr. Nittle. Did you get your orders also from Jean Krchmarek?

Mrs. Brown. Yes, I did.

Mr. Nittle. What were your duties as treasurer of the section?

Mrs. Brown. Well, when we would have the section meetings, the heads of the clubs would pay dues, give me the dues from the club members, with 10 percent taken out; and then I would take out 20 percent and give it to the state treasurer.

Mr. Nittle. Who was the state treasurer?

Mrs. Brown. Betty Chaka.

Mr. Nittle. C-h-a-k-a?

Mrs. Brown. Yes.

Mr. Doyle. Who got the 10 percent?

Mrs. Brown. The chibs kept the 10 percent and the section kept 20 percent ; and we used that for parties and

Mr. Doyle. Did you handle that money, or was it someone else?

Mrs. Brown. I handled the money that I received. I always kept the 20 percent, and the other was given, whenever I felt like taking it to her, Betty Chaka, the state treasurer.

Mr. Nittle. Who was the husband of Betty Chaka?

Mrs. Brown. Ed Chaka.

>Mr. Nittle. Also known as Edward Chaka?

Mrs. Brown. Edward Chaka.

Mr. Nittle. Mr. Chairman, I think the record should show that Edward Chaka was a member of the National Conunittee of the Commmiist Party, and that he was in attendance at the 17th National Convention of the Communist Party in December 1959, which was held in New York City. He attended that convention as a delegate from the Ohio District of the Commmiist Party. Did you know Edward Chaka?

Mrs. Brown. Yes, I did.

Mr. Nittle. How long have you known Edward Chaka?

Mrs. Brown. I have known Edward Chaka since 1948.

Mr. Nittle. Did you deliver this money personally to Betty Chaka?

Mrs. Brown. I certainly did.

Mr. Nittle. And she was the state treasurer?

Mrs. Brown. She was.

Mr. Nittle. Could you tell us the names of the leaders of the five clubs in that section? I just want the names of the leaders.

Mrs. Brown. Ruth Lend was one.

Mr. Nittle. You have already identified her, yes.

Mrs. Brown. Harry Spencer.

Mr. Nittle. Of course, you have stated he was a Communist club leader.

Mrs. Brown. That is right. Sally Clark was a chairman.

Mr. Nittle. Sally Clark, C-1-a-r-k?

Mrs. Brown. Yes. And of course Bert Washington, who is deceased.

Mr. Nittle. Bert Washington was at one time a club leader? When did he die?

Mrs. Brown. Well, sometime in 1960. And there were Laura and Fred O'Neal.

Mr. Nittle. Was Jean Krchmarek a club leader, as well as acting in her capacity as section chairman?

Mrs. Brown. Well, you hardly knew what leadership Jean Krchmarek was in, because she led everything and everyone, as far as the clubs were concerned.

Mr. Nittle. Was a gentlemen named Hugh Statten in your area?

Mrs. Brown. At one time Hugh Statten was in the club, in a club office. But he moved back to Chicago.

Mr. Nittle. Wlio succeeded him, if anyone?

Mrs. Brown. Well, it was the central area that Hugh Statten had charge of. He was sent from Chicago by the Communist Party to Cleveland, to reorganize the Negroes in the central area and in Cleveland proper.

Mr. Nittle. I believe you have also spoken of a Harry A. Spencer, did you?

Mrs. Brown. Yes.

Mr. Nittle. What position did he occupy?

(At this point Mr. Walter left the hearing room.)

Mrs. Brown. He was one of the leaders of his club. I think it was the 124 Club.

Mr. Nittle. In what section was that located?

Mrs. Brown. In the Northeast Section.

Mr. Nittle. That was in your section as well?

Mrs. Brown. Yes, it was.

Mr. Nittle. You mentioned an Edith and Lloyd Gaines as being active in the party.

Mrs. Brown. Yes.

Mr. Nittle. Were they in your section?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Nittle. Would you regard them as club leaders in that area?

Mrs. Brown. Oh, yes.

Mr. Nittle. Now, did you have occasion to attend any state conventions of the Communist Party?

Mrs. Brown. Yes.

Mr. Nittle. The state convention was the next highest level above the section?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Nittle. This is where leaders obtained their information as to party policy to carry down to the section level?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Nittle. So that as treasurer and a section leader, you were selected as a delegate to the state convention?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Nittle. Was it at the state convention that the delegates had an opportunity to learn what orders the state party chairman was instructed to give you?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Nittle. Then at the state convention, the only matter you would debate was how to carry out the orders received from higher headquarters, which was the national grouping?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Doyle (presiding). And you were elected to attend the state party convention in Ohio while you were an FBI informant?

Mrs. Brown. Oh, sure. That was the only time I did my work, when I was with the FBI.

Mr. Doyle. Did not any of your brother or sister Communists suspect you were an informant for the FBI?

Mrs. Brown. Well, I am very sure they didn't know it. One or two had accused me of writing names down at one of the state conventions, and claimed that I was under suspicion, but they never let up on me. They still kept using me.

Mr. Nittle. You have indicated that the Communists in party meetings usually met secretly. How did they maintain their secrecy when they would have to meet in larger numbers at a state convention?

Mrs. Brown. Well, you had to be known us a Communist. You had to be a Communist, and somewhat of a dedicated Communist, to be elected to the state convention; state meetings, if you want to say. And there would always be someone at the door to let you in, and they would know always whether you were a Communist or not.

Mr. Nittle. Were you delegates, who attended the state convention, ever explicitly informed or clearly informed of the place where the meeting was to convene?

Mrs. Brown. Not often. Maybe once I was informed. But I have stood on the sidewalk in the cold and snow for hours, waiting for someone to pick me up to take me to the meeting. They don't tell you where the meetings are. They have them at secret places, and the members are picked up and carried to this place.

Mr. Nittle. I noted you indicated that the club meetings usually took place in private homes.

Mrs. Brown. Yes.

Mr. Nittle. I believe some of the evidence here has indicated that these meetings lasted into the late hours of the evening and the early morning of the next day.

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Scherer. Which ones went on that long? The social, or the business meetings?

Mrs. Brown. Well, they had social affairs and business meetings, mixed. They would have a business meeting early in the evening in the party, and then after the party was over, they would have another meeting, sometimes in the early mornings, 6 and 7 o'clock, where some would go from the meeting to their jobs to prepare for meetings the next evening.

Mr. Scherer. What would you do all that time?

Mrs. Brown. Well, they are just like termites. They are working all the time.

Mr. Nittle. What kind of place would be selected for the state conventions?

Mrs. Brown. Some hall, secret hall, where they thouglit no one would know they were there, very often some hall — that is what I learned — on Kinsman Avenue. And then they began to stop them from having it there, and they began to have it at some other secret place where I have been at least three or four times. But as a rule, I never went directly there on my own.

Mr. Doyle. What do you mean by that answer?

Mrs. Brown. Well, I mean that most of the times I was picked up by a Communist and driven there in their car.

Mr. Scherer. You mean you didn't know in advance where the meeting was to be held?

Mrs. Brown. No, I did not.

Mr. Johansen. Well, how many persons out of a group that were meeting — how many of those individuals would know where the meeting was? Just one person?

Mrs. Brown. Well, maybe a few of the heads, the state heads, would naturally know ; and maybe Jean Krchmarek would know.

Mr. Johansen. It would be one of your superiors in the hierarchy?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct, yes. That is right.

Mr. Doyle. But there would not be a large attendance at these meetings? Perhaps 25 or 50 people?

Mrs. Brown. Well, 50 would be a large attendance. Maybe 20; and never over 30, I don't think they can trust 50 of them.

Mr. Nittle. This is the assemblage of what Lenin has described as the hard-core workers, the hardened workers, who were bound to rules of secrecy?

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Nittle. Persons you have described as dedicated Communists ; termites was another expression you used to describe them.

Mrs. Brown. That is correct.

Mr. Scherer. Were there more women than men, usually, at these meetings?

Mrs. Brown. Just about 50-50.

Mr. Nittle. Can you recollect some of the persons who were in attendance from the Ohio area at the state convention meetings with you?

Mrs. Brown. Well, Frieda Katz, Dave Katz, Jean Krchmarek and Anthony Krchmarek, and Martin and Sally Chancey, the Winters girl, Sally Winters, Pearl Levin, Regina Sokol, and others.

Mr. Nittle. Did Ethel Goodman attend any of the state convention meetings?

Mrs. Brown. Yes, Ethel had attended.

Mr. Nittle. Counsel, the reporter is asking for a 3-minute recess, so the committee will stand in recess. That will also give the witness a short rest.

(Short recess.)

Communist Activities in the Cleveland, Ohio, Area

TUESDAY AFTERNOON—JUNE 5, 1962
United States House of Representatives, Subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities, Washington, D.C.

PUBLIC hearings

The subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities reconvened at 2 p.m., Hon. Francis E. Walter (chairman) presiding.

Subcommittee members present: Representatives Walter, Doyle, Scherer, Johansen, Bruce; also present Representative Schadeberg.

TESTIMONY OF FRIEDA KATZ, ACCOMPANIED BY COUNSEL, JOSEPH FORER

Mr. Nittle. Would you state your name, please?

Mrs. Katz. My name is Frieda Katz.

Mr. Nittle. You are represented by counsel ?

Mrs. Katz. Yes, I am.

Mr. Nittle. Would counsel please identify himself for the record ?

Mr. Forer. Joseph Forer.

Mrs. Katz. Will the committee give me permission to read a statement?

The Chairman. No. You can leave the statement, and if we think that it is relevant, we will make it a part of the record.

Mrs. Katz. Thank you.

Mr. Nittle. Does the statement contain any references as to whether or not you are a member of the Communist Party as of this moment?

Mr. Forer. Well, all you have to do is look at the statement.

Mr. Nittle. Are you a member of the Communist Party, Mrs. Katz, as of this moment ?

Mrs. Katz. I should like to use my privilege under the fifth amendment of the Constitution of the United States, and my privileges and rights under the first amendment to the Constitution, of freedom of speech, redress to the Congress, and so on.

The Chairman. You said, "I should like to." Do you?

Mrs. Katz. I do. I refuse to answer the question on those grounds.

Mr. Nittle. Do you know Julia Brown ?

Mrs. Katz. I refuse to answer the question on the previously mentioned grounds.

Mr. Scherer. Witness, were you in the hearing room during the time that Julia Brown testified ?

(Witness conferred with counsel.)

Mrs. Katz. Yes ; I was present.

Mr. Scherer. You heard her testimony ?

Mr. Forer. During part of the time, I think.

Mrs. Katz. Part of the time. That is correct.

Mr. Scherer. Did you hear testimony with reference to you ?

(Counsel conferred with witness.)

Mrs. Katz. I did not hear all of the testimony.

Mr. Scherer. You heard part of it ?

Mrs. Katz. I heard part of it.

The Chairman. Whose testimony are you talking about?

Mr. Forer. He is talking about Julia Brown's testimony.

The Chairman. Let the witness answer the question.

Mrs. Katz. I must refuse to answer the question, on the previously stated grounds.

Mr. Scherer. Now, is there anything that Julia Brown said about you that is untrue ?

Mrs. Katz. I refuse to answer the question on the previously stated grounds, under the first amendment and the fifth amendment to the Constitution.

Mr. Scherer. Was Julia Brown telling the truth when she identified you as one of the leading Communists in the State of Ohio ?

Mrs. Katz, I must refuse to answer this question on the previously stated grounds.

Mr. Scherer. I have no further questions at this time.

The Chairman. Go ahead, Mr. Nittle.

Mr. Nittle. Do you also refuse to answer the question on the ground that the statements made by Julia Brown are true?

Mrs. Katz. I have already stated the grounds on which I have refused to answer the questions. These are my constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech, and the right not to incriminate myself, and these are the grounds on which I have refused and will decline to answer questions.

Mr. Nittle. I state as a fact, Mrs. Katz, that you were also a member of the Communist Party prior to your marriage to Dave Katz, and that you were a member of the Communist Party under the name of Frieda Zucker. Will you affirm or deny that assertion ?

Mrs. Katz. I shall refuse to answer, under the previously stated grounds.

Mr. Nittle. Is it not a fact that under the name Frieda Zucker you were the secretary of the Tom Paine branch of the Communist Party in Cleveland, Ohio, and you were so listed in the Ohio 1939 yearbook of the Communist Party ?

Mrs. Katz. I again refuse to answer the question under the previously stated grounds.

Mr. Nittle. Do you know Abe Strauss ?

Mrs. Katz. I refuse to answer the question on the previously stated grounds.

Mr. Nittle. Were you the executive secretary of the Civil Rights Congress in Cleveland, Ohio ?

Mrs. Katz. I decline to answer the question, again on the previously stated grounds.

Mr. Nittle. Mr. Chairman, I would like to read into the record a reference to the Civil Rights Congress as it appears in the committee's Guide to Subversive Organizations and Publications.

There is a footnote on page 44, as follows:

In response to a petition from the Attorney General for an SACB order requiring the Civil Rights Congress to register as a Communist-front organization, the SACB held hearings between November 1954 and June 1955 * * *. Thereafter, the Civil Rights Congress moved to dismiss the Attorney General's petition on the ground that the organization had dissolved on January 6, 195G. The SACB denied the request to dismiss the petition, stating that the Civil Rights Congress had "failed factually to establish its dissolution, and in any event, that under the proper application of the [Internal Security] Act dissolution of the respondent would not divest the Board of jurisdiction."

Now, I ask you, Mrs. Katz, as its executive secretary, was the Civil Rights Congress in Cleveland dissolved by the Communist Party ?

Mrs. Katz. I must decline to answer this question on the previous grounds stated.

Mr. Nittle. Are you not presently the secretary of the Ohio Bill of Rights Conference?

Mrs. Katz. I must decline to answer that question, on previously stated grounds.

Mr. Nittle. And was not that local organization a counterpart of the national organization titled "Civil Rights Congress" ?

Mrs. Katz. I again decline on previously stated grounds.

Mr. Nittle. I state to you as a fact that your name appears in the City Directory of Cleveland as secretary of the Ohio Bill of Rights Conference, 2014 East 105th Street, Room 202.

Mrs. Katz. I must again decline to answer the question on the previously stated grounds.

Mr. Nittle. Now, Mrs. Brown testified that about the mid-1950's, the Communist Party headquarters, which was then operating under the disguise of its front names, had moved its quarters from Euclid Avenue to 2014 East 105th Street, Room 202. Do you affirm or deny that testimony ?

Mrs. Katz. I shall again decline to answer the question on the previous grounds stated.

Mr. Nittle. Are not the Civil Rights Congress and the Ohio Bill of Rights Conference one and the same organization?

Mrs. Katz. I must again decline to answer the question on the grounds stated.

Mr. Nittle. Was not this a case of the same Communist group in Cleveland operating under different disguises and names to confuse the public ?

Mrs. Katz. I repeat my declination on the grounds previously stated.

Mr. Nittle. And did not the Communist Party succeed in duping many Negro people in that area ?

Mrs. Katz. I have already indicated my reasons for declining to answer. I do not see the point in the continued making of such statements. I am declining to answer under my rights under the first amendment to the Constitution, and the fifth amendment, not to incriminate myself.

Mr. Nittle. The staff has no further questions, Mr. Chairman.

The Chairman. Are there any questions ? The witness is excused.

Source: Communist activities in the Cleveland, Ohio, area : hearings before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eighty-seventh Congress, second session. June 4 and 5, 1962 (1962)

The Crucible

TRG Reality

As I got into my car to leave, Molly Kazan came out of the house ... It was impossible to keep looking into her distraught eyes.

She pointed out toward the road and told me that I no longer understood the country, that everybody who lived on that road approved of the Committee and what had been done.

After I had said that I ould not agree with their decision, she asked if I was staying at my house, a half hour away, and I said that I was on my way to Salem.

Her eyes widened in sudden apprehension. "You're not going to equate witches with this!"

- Arthur Miller, Timebends

Arthur Miller's play The Crucible debuted at the Martin Beck Theatre in New York City in January, 1953. It was not a roaring success.

"Arthur Miller is a problem playwright in both senses of the word." - Walter Kerr, Herald Tribune

"There is too much excitement and not enough emotion in The Crucible." - The New York Times

The original production was directed by an idiot, Jed Harris, who believed that since this was a period piece the performers should perform "classically" which in his mind meant everyone had to face out at the audience, never looking at each other. If you know anything about the play, or have seen the movie adaptation, you can see how this would not serve the text.

"The Crucible" was an act of desperation. Much of my desperation branched out, I suppose, from a typical Depression-era trauma - the blow struck on the mind by the rise of European Fascism and the brutal anti-Semitism it had brought to power. But by 1950, when I began to think of writing about the hunt for Reds in America, I was motivated in some great part by the paralysis that had set in among many liberals who, despite their discomfort with the inquisitors' violations of civil rights, were fearful, and with good reason, of being identified as covert Communists if they should protest too strongly.

- Arthur Miller, The New Yorker, October 1996

Put simply, Miller wrote this play in response to the House Committee on Un-American Activities ongoing efforts to publicly name and shame present and former members of the Communist Party, or anyone who even had affiliations with the Communist Party.

What I have found most ironic (when Great Lakes Theater Festival produced The Crucible a few years ago, and I played Miller in the original drama Seeing Red) is it was not Miller's own persecution before HUAC that inspired the piece. That came a few years later. And his testimony at that time makes you wonder if he were channeling the spirit of John Proctor, or if Proctor's psyche is so much a product of Miller's own he couldn't help but be surprised and shocked (in the way that Proctor is) that grown men choose or refuse not to respond to reason.

From Seeing Red by Daniel Hahn
adapted from Arthur Miller's Testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities
June 14, 1956

COMMITTEE Do you know or have you know a person by the name of Arnaud d’Usseau?

MILLER I have met him.

COMMITTEE Have you been in any Communist Party sessions with Arnaud d’Usseau?

MILLER I was present at meetings of Communist Party writers in 1947, about five or six meetings.

COMMITTEE Where were those meetings held?

MILLER They were held in someone’s apartment. I don’t know whose it was.

COMMITTEE Were those meetings closed?

MILLER I wouldn’t be able to tell you that.

COMMITTEE Was anyone there who, to your knowledge, was not a Communist?

MILLER I wouldn’t know that.

COMMITTEE Have you ever made application for membership in the Communist Party?

MILLER In 1939, I believe it was, or in 1940, I went to attend a Marxist study course in the vacant store open to the street in my neighborhood in Brooklyn. I there signed some form or another.

COMMITTEE That was an application for membership in the Communist Party, was it not?

MILLER I would not say that. I am here to tell you what I know.

COMMITTEE Tell us what you know.

MILLER This is now sixteen years ago. That is half a lifetime away. I don’t recall, and I haven’t been able to recall and, if I could, I would tell you the exact nature of that application. I understood then that this was to be, as I have said, a study course. I was there for about three or four times, perhaps. It was of no interest to me and I didn’t return.

COMMITTEE Who invited you to attend?

MILLER I wouldn’t remember. It was a long time ago.

COMMITTEE Tell us, if you please, sir, about these meetings with the Communist Party writers which you said you attended in New York City.

MILLER I attended these meetings in order to locate my ideas in relation to Marxism, because I had been assailed for years by all kinds of interpretations of what Communism was, what Marxism was, and I went there to discover where I stood. And I listened and said very little, I think, the four or five times.

COMMITTEE What occasioned your presence? Who invited you there?

MILLER I couldn’t tell you. I don’t know.

COMMITTEE Can you tell us who was there when you walked into the room?

MILLER Mr. Chairman, I understand the philosophy behind this question and I want you to understand mine. When I say this, I want you to understand that I am not protecting the Communists or the Communist Party. I am trying to, and I will, protect my sense of myself. I could not use the name of another person and bring trouble on him. I ask you not to ask me that question. I will tell you anything about myself, as I have.

COMMITTEE These were Communist Party meetings, were they not?

MILLER I will be perfectly frank with you in anything relating to my activities. I take the responsibility for everything I have ever done, but I cannot take responsibility for another human being.

COMMITTEE This record shows, does it not, Mr. Miller, that these were Communist Party meetings? Is that correct?

MILLER I understood them to be Communist writers who were meeting regularly.

COMMITTEE I respectfully suggest that you answer the question as to who it was that you saw at these meetings. May I say that moral scruples, however laudable, do not constitute legal reason for refusing to answer the question. You are directed to answer the question, Mr. Miller.

MILLER All I can say, sir, is that my conscience will not permit me to use the name of another person.

COMMITTEE Your are directed to answer the question as to whether or not Arnaud d’Usseau was chairman of the meeting of the Communist Party writers in New York City in 1947 at which you were in attendance.

MILLER I have given you my answer, sir.

COMMITTEE I ask you now, sir, whether or not Sue Warren was in attendance at this meeting of the Communist Party writers held in New York City in 1947?

MILLER I have given you my answer.

COMMITTEE Do you know Sue Warren? Did you decline to answer the question?

MILLER I tell you, sir, that I have given my answer.

COMMITTEE I am not satisfied with that. That is entirely too vague. Now what I want is a positive statement as to whether or not you will answer that question.

MILLER Sir, I believe I have given you the answer that I must give.

COMMITTEE Let us get that straight. As I understand, you decline to answer the question for the reason that you gave when you declined to answer the first question, or at least when you gave an answer that was not deemed acceptable, is that it?

MILLER That is correct.

COMMITTEE Are you cognizant of the fact that your play The Crucible, with respect to witch hunts in 1692, was the case history of a series of articles in the Communist press drawing parallels to the investigations of Communists and other subversives by Congressional committees?

MILLER The comparison is inevitable, sir.

The Crucible received its Cleveland premiere at the Cleveland Play House in 1954. More on that soon.

Cleveland Public Theatre presents THE WITCHES as part of Test Flight, a showcase of new works, March 3, 4 & 5, 2022.

Go Down Death

Aaron Douglas
Go Down Death, 1934
Oil on masonite
48" x 36"
In the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, I took in this painting this morning. Part of the God's Trombones series, this work illustrates a funeral sermon from James Weldon Johnson's book (God's Trombones) and depicts an Angel of Death riding down to take Sister Caroline into the arms of Jesus.

Note the radiating star in the upper left. Death is sometimes depicted as a falling star. It could also be the North Star. It is also an obvious Communist symbol. Death frees the slave from bondage. The North Star representative of the Underground Railroad. So, too, would the Communist Party lead the Negro to freedom.

Source: The David C. Driskell Center

White Motor Company

The White Motor Company was an outgrowth of the White Sewing Machine Company. The company's founder dismissed the important of the automobile, and so his sons created this new company in 1906 on Canal Street in the Flats. They concentrated on trucks during the Great War, and temporarily merged with Studebaker in the early 30s before reorganizing as the White Cotor COrporation, becoming a major producer of heavy-duty trucks and buses.

At this time, the local Communist Party turned its attention to auto workers at both the White Moror Co. and at the GM Fisher Body Plant on Coit Rd. Party member Wyndham Mortimer, a worker at White, formed the Cleveland District Automobile COuncil (CDAC.) This organization was noted for its discipline and unity. They organized a sit-down strike at the local Fisher Plant on December 28, which spread throughout GM, and ended in Feb. 1937 with the recognition of the Uniter Auto Workers (UAW). However, the UAW was working throughout the 1930s & 40s to rid the union of Communist influence.

Sources: Encyclopdia of Cleveland History
The Cool History of Cleveland