Stalin & Widow

Because he was a Socialist, because he was a member of the Republican Schutzbund, because he fought like a wildcat to defend the Floridsdorf district in Vienna against government artillery six weeks ago, Dr. George Weissel, university graduate, student of philosophy and Floridsdorf fire chief, was taken from jail and hanged.

Behind he left a penniless widow and a handsome three-year-old son.

Last week when news of this incident reached Moscow no less a person than Josef Stalin himself sent a letter to Widow Weissel. He shared her sorrow: he knew that she had no money; he would be proud to adopt her son and rear him as his own. Widow Weissel politely declined. Said she of her son: ''I promised his father that I would always bring him up as a Socialist, never a Communist."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.