Hyenic Laughter

The pinnacle of hyenic humor was the hyena, the classic hyena, that hit too jar back while running, would circle madly, snapping and tearing at himself until he pulled his own intestines out, and then stood there, jerking them out and eating them with relish.

--Ernest Hemingway in The Green Hills of Africa The only other animal known to man as a self-devourer is the Communist Party, which, from time to time, may be observed consuming its own entrails. Last week in East Germany, the hyena jaws were relishing a larger mouthful than usual: Franz Dahlem, No. 3 German Communist. Lorraine-born Comrade Dahlem, a Communist delegate to the German Reichstag from 1928 to 1932, was an International Brigade commissar in the Spanish Civil War. Interned by the French in 1939, he was turned over to the Gestapo three years later by the Vichy government and moved to a German concentration camp, from which he was liberated by the Red army.

A member of the party's Politburo, Central Committee and Secretariat, Dahlem headed the East German military buildup, and was East Germany's liaison man to the Cominform. Only two German Communists were bigger: Party General Secretary Walter Ulbricht, who toppled him, and Security Boss Wilhelm Zaisser, who arrested him. His crimes: "Political blindness." He was also charged with having supported Czech Communist Leader Rudolf Slansky, executed as a traitor last year. Warned the official announcement: "The investigation is not over yet." The hyena was still hungry.

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