Letter: German Communists with a conscience

Sir: The harsh tone and political point-scoring of Uwe Siemon- Netto's letter (21 July) supporting the exclusion of Communists from the Berlin exhibition on German Resistance, is wholly inappropriate to its subject - the honouring of those who paid with their lives for opposing Hitler. Among those were men and women who, like Stauffenberg and Goerdeler, had - in Dr Siemon-Netto's words - followed their consciences and, unlike them, become Communists and opposed Hitler as such from the very outset.

Representative of these are the trade union organiser Erich Krause who took his own life after being tortured, for fear of breaking and giving names; Robert Uhrig, organiser of the biggest and most active Resistance group in Berlin; Jon Graudenz, one of the leaders of the Innere Front group, and Herbert Baum, who led a Jewish Communist group.

These and many others belong in an exhibition of German Resistance, whatever had been done before or was done subsequently, in the name of the ideals that they believed in.

Yours sincerely,

NICHOLAS JACOBS

London, NW5

21 July