Hugo Eberlein

Hugo Eberlein (May 4, 1887 – October 16, 1941) was a German Communist politician. He took part of the founding congress of the Communist Party of Germany (Dec-Jan 1919), and then in the First Congress of the Comintern (March 2–6, 1919), where he held important posts until 1928, the result of his involvement with the Conciliator faction. When the Nazis took power in Germany in 1933, Eberlein fled to the Soviet Union, where he found refuge at the Hotel Lux. In July 1937, he fell under the Stalinist terror. In January 1938, was interrogated and tortured for ten days and nights. In April 1938, he was brought to Lefortovo Prison, where he was tortured for weeks at a time, and then in 1939, he was sentenced to 15 years in the Vorkuta Gulag. He was returned to Moscow in 1941, when he was tried and sentenced again and was shot on October 16, 1941. Hugo Eberlein was later rehabilitated and became a national hero in East Germany; his name was even borne by a guard regiment of the National People's Army.