On this date in 1951, liberal East German activist Arno Esch was shot in Lubyanka Prison outside of Moscow.
Plaque at the University of Rostock honoring Esch. (cc) image by Schiwago.
Just 17 when World War II ended, Esch emerged as a leading student activist for the Liberal Democratic Party in the postwar Soviet Occupation Zone — a pacifist who advocated political liberalization and civil rights.
These weren’t times for any common fronts: “a liberal Chinese is closer to me than a German communist,” Esch remarked, denoting a clear and present danger in the communist zone: his party attempted in vain to form a coalition across the nascent Iron Curtain with its like-minded brethren in the western zones.
Esch was arrested in 1949 and prosecuted as a spy and counterrevolutionary by a Soviet military tribunal.
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- 1471: Dmitry Isakevich Boretsky, son of Marfa Boretskaya
- 1735: Patience Boston, converted
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- 1892: Ruggles brothers lynched
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- 1794: Not Thomas Paine