Every conceivable cruel method of blackmail was used against me to obtain by force and at all costs confessions and statements both about comrades who had been arrested, and about political activities.

Meaning of the quote

The quote describes how the authorities used many harsh and unfair ways to force Ernst Thalmann to confess things about his friends who had been arrested and about his political work. They tried to scare and threaten him in order to get him to say what they wanted, even though it wasn't true.

About Ernst Thalmann

Ernst Johannes Fritz Thalmannwas a German communist politician and leader of the Communist Party of Germanyfrom 1925 to 1933.
A committed communist, Thalmann played a major role during the political instability of the Weimar Republic, especially in its final years, when the KPD explicitly sought to overthrow the liberal democracy of the republic.

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