The Accused (Hexensabbat)

"He was an Austrian communist and a friend of my grandfather. These are his memoirs. My mother gave me a copy when I was 12. He was a scientist and, like many communists, he went to Russia, working at an institute in Kharkov. He was accused of being a foreign spy and plotting to kill Stalin. He was imprisoned for two years and, like many others, endured sleep deprivation. Cybulski – a very jolly, big man – confessed. The next morning, after he’d been allowed to sleep, he withdrew his confessions. His case never went to trial. Then, in that lovely act of friendship between Hitler and Stalin in 1939 – when Stalin handed over a few Jewish prisoners and Hitler gave up a few communists – Cybulski was exchanged and put on a train. He got off in Poland and spent a large part of the war as part of the Polish underground, fighting the Nazis and, miraculously, surviving. The book is a description of the events in the Soviet Union. It describes in part what Darkness at Noon describes, only better. He’s on the list because I have a personal connection with him; my copy includes an inscription from Cybulski to my grandfather. It’s ultimately an uplifting account, free of moralising. He used to visit us after the war. You couldn’t tell what happened to him. He was always very good-humoured. Life goes on."