at home with his family in defiance of those instructions when the police came for him. The authorities immediately launched a rumour to the effect that he had defected to the National Socialists and betrayed party-leader Thälmann. Initially this item of fake news was widely believed, even in Communist circles. In April 1933 he was transferred to the newly opened Sonnenburg concentration camp. Schneller was moved again on 8 July 1933, this time to a penitentiary in Leipzig ("Gefangenenanstalt II") where he was held in investigatory detention. On 9 November 1933 he faced trial at the Supreme Court in Leipzig. Convicted of incitement to high treason, he was sentenced to six year's imprisonment and five years of deprivation of citizens' rights ("Ehrverlust"). On 16 November 1933 he was removed to the Waldheim Penitentiary where, for the next six years, he was held in solitary confinement. In July 1939, his jail term having been completed, Schneller was transferred to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp where he was identified as Prisoner 764. He was later assigned a new number, "1181715". He was seconded to the "Klinkerwerk", effectively a large heavy-tile factory in the concentration camp. The work was inhumanly heavy and there is a report of an occasion when he collapsed, but with the support of comrades he recovered rapidly. In the camp he became one of the leaders of an illegal Communist party group among the inmates: he was able to ensure that the group were able to stay informed about political and military developments in the world outside. In March 1944 an SS guard discovered leaflets and a radio belonging to the group, which is probably connected with reports that the communist group within the camp were planning some sort of an insurrection and a mass escape. The group was quickly infiltrated with spies. A major operation against the group took place on 11 August 1944 after which 150 inmates were moved to "isolation bloc 58". On 11 October 1944 103 of these were moved to the Mauthausen concentration camp near Linz. A further 27 – mostly communists – were taken out and shot dead by Nazi paramilitaries (SS). Those killed included Ernst Schneller as well as Mathias Thesen, Ludger Zollikofer, Rudolf Hennig und Gustl Sandtner. Family Ernst and Hilde Schneller married in 1916. After Ernst Schneller was arrested their daughter Annemarie (later Annemarie Raeder) was looked after by Arthur Rackwitz,