51³Ô¹ÏÍø

CU Hanns Eisler, Hollywood songwriter/composer, listening to VO Robert Stripling, Chief Investigator of the House asking: "Are you now, or have you ever been a Communist?" / CU SOT Eisler: "I am not now a Communist. And I remember I made, when I was a young man, in 1926, an application for the German Communists; but I found out every quick that I couldn't combine my artistic activities with the demand of any political party, so I dropped out." / VO Stripling: "You dropped out." / SOT Eisler: "Dropped out." / VO Stripling: "I thought you said you made application." SOT Eisler: "Yes." / VO Stripling: "You wouldn't drop out if you made application." SOT Eisler: "Oh, yes, sir. Look. If I join a union and don't pay my union dues, I will immediately after a couple of months be suspended." VO Stripling: "I understood you made application." SOT Eisler: "Yes." VO Stripling: "Well, did you join?" SOT Eisler: "You know that is the implication, but I didn't take any more care of it. I just let it run." VO Stripling: "You did join the Communist Party." SOT Eisler: "I made application." VO Stripling: "Did you join?" SOT Eisler: "It is so: you make an application. You get an answer." VO Stripling: "Mr. Chairman, the question is simple. What I have asked is, Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?" / SOT Eisler: "I say I am not now a member of the Communist Party. I tried to explain to you …" "The German Communists in the last 15 years have sacrificed so much, and fought so heroically I would be a swindler if I called myself a Communist. I have not the right to say. The Communist underground workers in every country have proven that they are heroes. I am not a hero. I am a composer."