Arthur, also an actor<ref>Catherine Epstein, [https://books.google.com/books?id=MHjpAWwF-zQC&lpg=PA57&ots=Xzezx0aalN&dq=&pg=PA57#v=onepage&q&f=false "The Last Revolutionaries: German Communists and Their Century] President and Fellows of Harvard College (2003), p. 57. . Retrieved November 30, 2011</ref> and Bruno Schmidtsdorf, the lead actor in Gustav von Wangenheim's 1935 film, Kämpfer. Schmidtsdorf was arrested on February 5, 1938 with fellow troupe members Kurt Ahrendt and Karl Oefelein, all charged with founding a branch of the Hitler Youth. All three were executed three weeks later. Ahrendt was also from the Karl Liebknecht School, where he was a leader of the Young Pioneers. Those arrested were tortured and often confessed quickly to alleged crimes, either to try to bring the torture to a halt or because they were advised by those longer in custody that it was their only hope for relief from the beatings, which could last for hours. A number of those arrested were the children of prominent communists, such as Hans Beimler, Jr., son of Hans Beimler; Max Maddalena, Jr., son of Max Maddalena; and Gustav Sobottka, Jr., the son of Gustav Sobottka. Of those arrested, 6 were released, 20 were sentenced from five to ten years, 40 were executed, two were returned to Germany and the Gestapo under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact; and one died in prison. The first execution was on February 20, 1938 at the Butovo firing range; an additional 39 people were executed there between March and May 1938. Aftermath Mikhail Persitz was ousted from the NKVD and arrested in April 1939 and indicted with three paragraphs of Article 58. He was tortured and confessed his guilt, though he later recanted. An NKVD troop tribunal tried Persitz and found him guilty of all charges. He was shot on February 2, 1940. Ivan Sorokin, who had been head of the 3rd Department of the Main Directorate of State Security, was charged with mishandling prisoners and fabricating charges. He was tried at an NKVD troop tribunal in August 1939 and was sentenced to death, a sentence confirmed by the Supreme Soviet. After Stalin's death, a re-examination of the case revealed that the charges were baseless. Survivors were released from detention in 1954 and 1955. Gustav Sobottka, Jr. was rehabilitated postmortem in 1956. Partial list of those arrested Kurt Ahrendt, teenager – executed 1938 Hans Beimler, Jr., teenager Helmut Damerius – tortured, sentenced to a gulag and banished to Kazakhstan Hans Klering, adult – later co-founder of DEFA Wilhelm