"Spiders, Bugs, Rats"

Thread by thread, like the work of an insane weaver, the grotesque fabric of lies and self-accusations was assembled. At last it was finished. The state prosecutor demanded the death penalty for all 14 of the accused. The "defense attorneys" vied with each other in admitting that the case against the defendants had been abundantly proved, but they asked for leniency on the ground that their full and frank confessions had made the prosecution's task easier.

Next day, in the courtroom of Prague's Pankrac prison, sentence was pronounced. Moscow-trained Rudolf Slansky, onetime secretary general of the Czechoslovak Communist Party was condemned to death by hanging. So was Vladimir Clementis, onetime Foreign Minister, who left the safety of the U.N. to return home, and was double-crossed when he got there. Nine others would also be hanged on some lonely dawn. Three of the accused were let off with life imprisonment on the ground that they had been forced to take orders from higher-ups. Said Prague's official Communist organ, Rude Pravo: "The accused are creatures who long ago lost the right to be called men. When looking at them, one is reminded of the pictures from Korea of the spiders, bugs and rats carrying with them the plague, typhoid and cholera."

Meanwhile, the insistent, blatant note of anti-Semitism--masked as a battle against "Zionism" and "Jewish nationalism"--at the Prague trial struck louder & louder reverberations of protest from world Jewry. The Israeli Knesset (Parliament) passed a resolution expressing "outrage." The Knesset's Communists, though plainly disturbed by the goings-on in Prague, swallowed their fears and voted against the resolution.

Czechoslovakia's 18,000 Jews, all that remained after Nazi occupation and postwar emigration, were reported to be alarmed. There were indications, also, that Prague-style purges might spread to other satellites. In Budapest, a Communist newspaper proclaimed that "Zionism" was rampant in Hungary, and called for action against it. This would take some doing, since Hungary's Communist Dictator Matyas Rakosi and his two chief lieutenants are Jews.

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