How a Socialist Hero Died
How a Socialist Hero Died Hoan Backs Demands of 20,000 Demonstrators in Milwaukee ¦y Andrew J. Biemiller MILWAUKEE.—N early twenty thousand workers marched through the streets of Milwaukee...
...The throng gathered at the Court House where they listened to speeches by Elmer Baumann, a member of the Workers' Com-i mittee executive board, former Socialist assemblyman Carl Minkley ; and Al Benson, State Secretary of i the Socialist Party...
...Exactly two hours later the lifeless body of our hero was taken away, put into a simple wooden coffin and taken to the cemetery...
...The story, in part, follows: •AULA WALLISCH came to visit her husband in his cell...
...w----waiting in the corridor...
...Afterwards the two doctors examined the body and affirmed that death had ensued in ten minutes...
...Epic Story of the Hanging of Wallisch, Socialist Hero Wi have received from the press service of the Austrian Socialists as account of the execution in the district prison at Loebcn of Comrade Kolomon Wallisch a leader of the fighting Socialists in the Austrian civil war last February...
...The condemned man had his right and left arms pinioned in the well known police grip...
...Both the County Board and the Common Council unanimously passed the resolutions presented...
...A litre of wine was brought him in a glass jug, and a whole cake, provided by a neighboring inn...
...The executioners hung on to his shoulders so that the noose should tighten the more...
...All were shaken by her (creaming...
...From our cell we were well able to see the preparations for " tho execution...
...The members of the tribunal, the witnesses and the members of the Executive now left the place of execution, obviously moved by the great heroic spirit in which this man had died...
...Three boys, coura-feous Schutxbiindlers, who had taken part with Wallisch in the fighting and had been incarcerated, with him in the Loeben prison, were brought Into the cell...
...The May Day meeting has the support of the Workers' Committee of the Federated Trades Council...
...The resolu-j tions demanded that the county , board send a delegation to Wash-¦ ington to demand of the President r a $10,000,000,000 appropriation, - and that the entire board go to > Madison to demand that Governor Schmedeman call a special session of the Legislature to levy a special tax on all incomes over $10,000 a year to provide additional funds for unemployment relief...
...It is one of the most inspiring documents in the long history of class struggles, and we are glad to give it this leading position...
...This story of the trial and execution was written by a Socialist prisoner in a tell adjoining the place of execution...
...Behind Wallisch walked first of all Spitzer, the executioner, dressed in a black coat, top hat and white gloves...
...There followed spectators eager for sensation, among whom were police, military officers, civilians, judges and two doctors, the prison doctor, Kraemer, and the district doctor, Schatz...
...The continued Imprisonment of Paula Wallisch is an act of sheer brutality by the fascist cowards and "Christian" tools of Austrian capitalists and landlords...
...Wallisch, whose contact with his comrades had always been love-inspired, and who as a great orator had known how to quiet the passions of his audience, now tried in vain to calm his wife...
...At 11 o'clock at night 60 soldiers, armed to the teeth and wearing steel helmets, came in-+to the court-yard and formed a square...
...Street cars had to be re-routed and automobiles were stranded...
...At 11:30 a. m. the executioner S p i t z e r from Vienna, who with his two assistants had spent the day drinking, appeared at the cell and called out in the Viennese dialect: "Come on out...
...How a Socialist Hero Died Hoan Backs Demands of 20,000 Demonstrators in Milwaukee ¦y Andrew J. Biemiller - MILWAUKEE.—N early twenty thousand workers marched through the streets of Milwaukee April 17th, demanding a federal appropriation of $10,000,000,000 fo he used for cash relief and public works...
...Her brother had come from Marburg and was also allowed to see his brother-in-law...
...He re-wived them joyfully, ahook their **ndg and said to them: "Con-to be good proletarians...
...Hail Freedom...
...0ur leader was then taken through a long, narrow corridor of the for-m e r Dominican monastery, which is now the district prison, into the courtyard, the Holzhof, which is shut in by high walls...
...the executioner threw the noose around his neck, and at the same moment the two assistants pulled the rope down...
...The demonstration was called by the Milwaukee Workers' Committee on Unemployment...
...The members of the tribunal went first...
...Cheers for Socialism on Lips as He Was Murdered...
...It was exactly 11:40 p. m. when they brought our never to be forgotten leader into the court-yard...
...The success of this demonstration indicates a turn-out of be-tween forty and fifty thousand for the May Day demonstration called for the first Sunday In May by the Socialist Party...
...Then the prisoner was asked if he wanted a priest...
...Men and women of the proletariat gather In small groups with tears in their eyes, expressing their love for Comrade Wallisch, declaring that he will never be forgotten...
...He and his sister wept unceasingly, and Koloman Wallisch now tried to put an end to the situation, trying to calm his wife by joking...
...He walked to the place of execution with the same firm step we had so >ften seen when he approached the platform at meetings...
...The flowers are brought day by day to the great hero's grave...
...Comrade Wallisch was betrayed to Dollfuss' hangmen and the betrayers were later executed by Socialist avengers...
...As, head erect, led by the executioner's assistants, he went by our window, he cast a first glance at the corner of the wall where the gallows stood, and threw up his head...
...Downtown traffic was paral lyzed for nearly an hour...
...Fear for her husband again overwhelmed the wife who had been so brave...
...There was dead silence, when suddenly from one of the open cell windows a cry rang out Into the night: "Murderers...
...a thick pole about three and] a half yards high was planted there, and a few Rteps erected for the executioner...
...After a few seconds, Spitzer ran down the steps, went over to the President of the Court Martial, took off hia hat and said: "I announce that the sentence has been carried out...
...Criminal prisoners had to dig a deep hole...
...The last syllable of the word "Freedom" could not be heard...
...She screamed and broke into passionate denunciation qf his executioners...
...While his beloved wife slept on the straw mattress, he prepared" himself for his last walk...
...At the City Hall the demonstrators were addressed by Mayor Daniel W. Hoan...
...He also ate a piece of cake and glanced at what the morning newspapers had written about his arrest In the meantime, feverish tension reigned in the prison...
...Wallisch replied quietly: "You will have time e n o u g h." The members of the tribunal were...
...The prison doctor then gave our Comrade Wallisch a handkerchief soaked in chloroform...
...While the ; meeting was being held a commit- tee presented two resolutions to I the County Board 6f Supervisors, > who were in session...
...Our Comrade Wallisch was rendered unconscious at once and no death struggle was apparent...
...At the City Hall a committee of the demonstrators presented resolutions to the Common Council, asking that Mayor Hoan be sent to Washington to submit their demands to the President and that the entire Common Council visit Madison to demand a special session...
...An official was sent to a coffee house for a paper...
...The time will soon come when we shall be victorious...
...Meantime Paula Wallisch, widow of the martyred leader, is still in the custody of Dollfuss' "Christian" jailers...
...From the Court House the crowd marched down Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee's principal thoroughfare, to the City Hall...
...He urged that similar demonstrations be held in every city in the United States, saving: "The billion and a half dollars recommended by President Roosevelt for unemployment relief is a mere pittance...
...The police removed the flowers and more were brought, and so for three days and nights, until the priests finally declared that the flowers should remain...
...For days thereafter workers slipped into the cemetery where Comrade Wallisch lies and heaped flowers on his grave, some shaped like Schutzbund badges and some like the Three Arrows...
...Marching eight abreast, they formed a parade nearly a mile and a half long...
...He refused decisively but politely...
...Every day thereafter fresh flowers are brought...
...He thereupon drew off his white gloves and threw them away...
...When he began to speak, tho pxecutioner's assistants lifted him...
...Wallisch was placed with his tack to the pole, the executioner nounted the few steps erected in Front of the pole, and now our Wallisch shouts into the deep lilence of the night his last words, homage to the party he served: 'Social Democracy lives...
...The executioners took charge of Wallisch who, dressed once again in his ordinary clothes, was put between the two assistants...
...The unemployed will only get Justice when demonstrations like this one are held all over the country...
...One more wish, which was readily fulfilled...
...The man who for over ten years had lived and fought with the Bruck workers wanted to speak with comrades from Bruck before he died...
...He seated himself on his straw mattress, slapped his thigh and said with a smile: "Now really, are you going to die, or am I?" He ordered a glass of wine, a piece of cake, and a newspaper...
...Wallisch, who formerly never took alcohol, drank nearly the whole of the wine...
...Still a young woman, her health is broken, one side if paralyzed, and she is held although no charge is lodged against her...
...It cannot possibly meet the problem...
...Before her arrest this brave woman had not left her husband's side for one moment and was with him even in the fighting...
Vol. 17 • April 1934 • No. 16
