Berlin, February 7, 1934
A month and a half has already elapsed since the day on which a verdict of 'not guilty' was announced in the Reichstag fire trial, but we, the three acquitted Bulgarians, are still being kept in prison - in underground cells noxious to our health, deprived of daylight, utterly humid, almost hermetically isolated from the outside world, in which we feel like buried alive.
I, for instance, am forbidden to read not only any foreign newspapers, but even Bulgarian governmental newspapers, newspapers of my own country.
My mother and sister are not allowed to inform me during our meetings even about the situation and developments in Bulgaria.
Up to this day I have received no official explanation of the reasons for my arrest.
From the hints of different officials one can arrive at most diverse conclusions:
1. We are to remain under arrest, because we represent a political threat to the government.
2. We are being kept under arrest for the sake of our own personal safety.
3. We are still in prison, because negotiations are underway with other countries for our extradition.
The first explanation, of course, cannot be taken as serious. A government, which feels so secure, cannot possibly risk any danger in connexion with the release and expulsion of three Bulgarian political emigrants.
The second explanation is groundless, because it cannot be assumed that any convinced National Socialist could be found who, on his own initiative, might assault innocent foreign Communists.
The third explanation has already been refuted by the bare fact that, as has already been established, Poland is ready to grant us a transit visa, and the Soviet Union to admit us as political emigrants.
And if, in spite of all this, we are still being kept under arrest, that might be with the following ends in view: either we are to be gradually turned into physical and moral invalids or, at a 'convenient' moment, with the aid of 'irresponsible' factors, be liquidated.
I think that politically this is not in the interest of the government, and that is why from day to day I am waiting for our case to be closed by our being sent at once to the Soviet Union or to one of the neighbouring countries.
If, unfortunately, this should not happen soon, I will have no other alternative - and I state this outright not as a threat, but as a dilemma imposed on me - but to resort to the only means of personal defence of innocent prisoners - to go on a hunger strike. My health and patience are almost exhausted. Better an end with horror than horror without end.
For exactly eleven months I have been in this terrible prison.
Respectfully yours,
G. Ditmitrov