consequence of increasing tensions between right-wing nationalists and socialist member. Later that year Blackstein joined the "Free German-Jewish Youth" ("Freie Deutsch-Jüdischen Jugend") group, which was concerning itself with educating Jewish youngsters on the merits of socialist approaches and attitudes. The political tensions of the times were also reflected inside the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Towards the end of 1931 Max Seydewitz was one of several SPD members expelled from the party for breaches of party discipline. Those excluded responded by setting up the Socialist Workers' Party ("Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands" / SAPD). Seydewitz was a local man, and Blachstein reacted by switching from the SPD to the new SAPD. In Dresden he established a youth wing for the SAPD. He was also entrusted with what was termed, in the spirit of the time, Agitprop work in the Dresden area, and it was in this context that he set up a political cabaret group called "Die Nebelspalter" (loosely "The fog destroyers") which campaigned for the SAPD in the two general elections of 1932. (The SAPD was not very successful electorally, however.) Although the focus of his journalistic work remained on the arts, he was also writing in support of the fight against the introduction of military sports ("Wehrsport") and of voluntary labour service ("Freiwilliger Arbeitsdienst") which the government was promoting as a remedy against the very high levels of unemployment which accompanied the economic depression that had been triggered by the Wall Street Crash back in 1929. Nazi Germany The political backdrop changed rapidly after the Nazi power seizure in January 1933. The new government lost very little time in transforming Germany from a democracy into a one-party dictatorship. Blachstein initially remained in Dresden as a member of the city's SAPD leadership group. His political activity was now illegal. Responding to an SAPD leafleting operation, between 1 May and 8 May 1933 approximately 90 SAPD activists were arrested. Peter Blachstein was one of them. He was taken to Dresden Jail where his interrogation involved serious physical torture. On 28 February 1934 he was transferred from Dresden Jail to Hohenstein Concentration Camp, where he remained until August 1934. Later he would use his experience from the inside of the Nazi prison system in a theater play "Ein Prozeß" ("A trial"), published and first performed in Oslo in 1938. The old president's death, in August 1934, was marked by a fourth so-called Hindenburg Amnesty.