On 11 March 1934, the author, of Czech nationality and a correspondent of the Prager Tageblatt in Berlin was arrested by the Gestapo and taken to the Prinz-Albrechtstrasse, after a house-search lasting two hours.

He was not allowed to get in touch with the Czechoslovakian Embassy, and when he insisted to be properly treated at the Police Prison, he was sneered at and sent to the Columbia Haus, a KZ-prison at Tempelhof. Here he was threatened and ill-treated and at last left to sleep in a dirty cell on a palliasse. The next morning, he was tormented again, then taken back to the Prinz Albrechtstrasse, where he waited in vain to be interrogated, and sent back to Columbia Haus. A special torment in this prison was the difficulty of being allowed to go to the lavatory.

It was not before 16 March that the author was taken to the Gestapo again; there he was told at last the reason for his arrest: an article published by him on the case of Sosnowski (p.5). In the presence of the Czechoslovakian Vice-Consul the author promised not to report on the same (a spy-affair) again, wrote a declaration about his treatment and was released.