Wangenheim fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s and found refuge in the Soviet Union . While living in exile at Moscow 's Hotel Lux , he continued writing and producing movies , such as '' Der Kampf '' ( 1936 ) , an anti-Nazi protest film , and was the head of the German language Cabaret " Kolonne Links " . In 1936 , during the Stalinist purges , he denounced his colleagues Carola Neher and Anatol Becker as Trotskyites . Becker was executed and Neher died in the Gulag system after five years in prison . Von Wangenheim 's son later stated the accusations that his father denounced Neher and Becker were one-sided and inaccurate . Gustav von Wangenheim 's son claimed his father , after being arrested by the NKVD and a lengthy interrogation , signed a statement that implicated Carola Neher as being " anti soviet " but had in fact explicitly refuted the accusation that Neher and her husband Anatol Becker had planned to murder Stalin
purges
Great Purge
Gustav von Wangenheim