An Appeal for Your Declaration in Behalf of the Four Reichstag Fire Trial Defendants

A flyer issued by a Communist front group in NYC to draw attention to the trial of four Communists in Germany who were alleged to have participated in the Reichstag fire on Monday February 27, 1933. The arson attack too place a month after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor and became the pretext for the Nazi's suspension of some civil liberties, especially against Communists. Three of the four defendants were Bulgarian Comintern operatives and the other was chairman of the KPD Reichstag faction. This flyer was issued two months after the beginning of the men's trial and alleges that the defendants were not receiving a fair trial and that the Nazis were using it as a platform for propaganda. The men were ultimately acquited, although Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch council communist with several previous convictions for attempted arson, was executed. The bottom of the flyer includes a section for the undersigned to "declare his protest against [the] farcical procedure and request the immediate safe release of the four defendants." Offset printed on the recto only. A few tiny nicks to the edges, else a fine copy.…