Red Love

by David Evanier

  METZGER: I think she just peered about, saw some paper, and took it.

  QUESTION: Did she beckon you to come over and sit beside her?

  METZGER: Did she beckon?

  QUESTION: Yes.

  METZGER: I do not recall specific beckoning.

  QUESTION: And she wrote that she was told to come out and see an aeronautical engineer.

  METZGER: Yes.

  QUESTION: Did you ask her why she picked you out of all the aeronautical engineers in Pittsburgh?

  METZGER: Gee, I didn’t.

  QUESTION: Didn’t you think it was rather strange that she chose you? METZGER: I did think it was strange.

  QUESTION: Did she explain to you why she picked you out?

  METZGER: No, she didn’t.

  QUESTION: Didn’t you ask her?

  METZGER: I think 1 did.

  QUESTION: What did she say?

  METZGER: She?

  QUESTION: Sophie.

  METZGER: It may not have been her.

  QUESTION: It may not have been who?

  METZGER: Sophie. It looked like a man.

  QUESTION: Now, hold it. Fun is fun, but let’s not get ridiculous.

  METZGER: What must you mean?

  QUESTION: You must remember something she said. Where was your mind?

  METZGER: I was real upset at the time.

  QUESTION: What did she say after she started to write on that pad?

  METZGER: She or he had memorized instructions as to how this engineer and his friend were to leave the country.

  QUESTION: Yes, but what were they? What were the instructions?

  METZGER: I didn’t let her get that far. I told her I wasn’t interested in what she had to say, that I hoped she wasn’t getting in trouble or doing anything naughty.

  QUESTION: You’ve said you thought her visit was a trap. What sort of a trap?

  METZGER: Of course I had been reading about the spy cases in the paper. She did mention in writing that she knew Solomon Rubell. Well, here I was being asked to flee the country for some reason. So I wondered if somebody was trying to trap me into something, since I had no reason to leave.

  QUESTION: You knew exactly that Rubell had been arrested?

  METZGER: Yes.

  QUESTION: So that when his name appeared on that paper of hers, you weren’t completely ignorant of the fact, were you?

  METZGER: Oh, no.

  QUESTION: Didn’t you immediately connect that arrest up with her visit, in your mind?

  METZGER: Yes, I think I did.

  QUESTION: Of course you did. You are a doctor, with a Ph.D. The Rubells and the arrests and F.B.I. visit—that is one, two; and when she is there, asking you to flee the country, you immediately have to associate yourself with the Rubells in your own mind, and her visit—is that correct?

  METZGER: Yes.

  QUESTION: Then you must have said something to her. You must have not only been confused, but you might have been shocked. Look, I know that if I was in that situation, and I was completely innocent, and somebody knocked at the door and said, “Look, get out of the country. The Rubells—” I would resent it; I tell you, the air would be blue by the time 1 got through with someone like that. I think that’s what any normal, innocent person would do. Now Mr. Metzger, what did you do? Hmmmm?

  METZGER: I don’t think I lost my temper. I thought she should leave.

  QUESTION: You mean you were practically accused of espionage, and you didn’t lose your temper?

  METZGER: Not in the conventional sense.

  QUESTION: Don’t you ever get mad at anybody?

  METZGER: Not very often.

  QUESTION: If someone came up and slapped you in the face, wouldn’t that make you mad?

  METZGER: Yes, but I don’t recall when that has ever occurred.

  QUESTION: Generally speaking, what did Sophie Rich say to you when she came to your apartment?

  METZGER: I don’t know. It may not have been her.

  QUESTION: Oh, please, please. Here is a woman that practically accuses you of being a spy. She puts a finger on you. She selects you out of hundreds of millions—she picks you as the one to flee the country. And you don’t even recall what was said. You are painting yourself almost as a person who is committing perjury, my friend. Are you telling me you can’t even recall what happened at that time?

  METZGER: It certainly seems incredible, I know.

  QUESTION: If I told you the same story, you would think there was something wrong with me, wouldn’t you?

  METZGER: 1 couldn’t answer that. I don’t know.

  QUESTION: Tell us everything that Sophie Rich wrote down that day when she dropped in on you in Pittsburgh.

  METZGER: She wrote that she had instructions from a stranger in New York, and money which she was to transmit to an aeronautical engineer in Pittsburgh. She made some mention of a second friend in along there. The instructions were how this person, and presumably this friend, were to flee the country.

  QUESTION: Go on. That isn’t all?

  METZGER: I believe I interrupted her on occasion, with questions as to why she had visited me, and why she thought that I had anything to do with this, whatever it was; that I hoped she wasn’t doing anything naughty, although I realize this all sounds kind of trivial now. At this point I think she mentioned she knew Solomon Rubell.

  QUESTION: Did you ask her why she happened to pick you out?

  METZGER: Yes, I asked her about that.

  QUESTION: What did she say?

  METZGER: I don’t know.

  QUESTION: You don’t know what she said when you asked her why she picked you out?

  METZGER: That’s right. She said something like, I might judge this for myself. I recall that phrase.

  QUESTION: What did you do with the paper on which she wrote out her message to you?

  METZGER: I destroyed it.

  QUESTION: Why?

  METZGER: I don’t know why.

  QUESTION: Well, you must have had some reason?

  METZGER: It was … I was really rather upset and I presume I acted in response to an impulse to deface the memory of this visit.

  QUESTION: Why, for what reason, if you were innocent?

  METZGER: I can’t give you a logical reason.

  QUESTION: You have seen the pictures of the Rubells, haven’t you?

  METZGER: Yes.

  QUESTION: You still cannot identify them?

  METZGER: That’s right, sir.

  QUESTION: You graduated from CCNY in 1938?

  METZGER: Yes.

  QUESTION: Well, wasn’t Maury Ballinzweig one of your classmates?

  METZGER: Well, I understand that he was.

  QUESTION: You know he was.

  METZGER: I am sorry. I cannot recall Ballinzweig being in my class.

  QUESTION: Perhaps this will help you: When Maury Ballinzweig applied for a position with the General Electric Company, your name was given as one of his references, as a man whom he knew for more than eight years. Why did he pick you out?

  METZGER: This is news. I don’t know.

  QUESTION: It may be bad news.

  METZGER: I certainly must have known him in City College.

  QUESTION: You certainly must have; and you certainly must have known him afterwards, and you certainly must have met him almost every day at the meetings of the Steinmetz Society.

  METZGER: I can’t recall anything like that.

  QUESTION: Were you ever present in the apartment of Solomon Rubell?

  METZGER: Well, I would say no definitely, but it has to be to the best of my recollection.

  QUESTION: Were you ever present in the apartment at 29 Perry Street rented by Solomon Rubell?

  METZGER: I would say not.

  QUESTION: How well did you know Ballinzweig after college days?

  METZGER: Well, I don’t know.

  QUESTION: You don’t know how well you knew him? What was your relationship, just a friend?

  METZGER: Well, it cert
ainly couldn’t have been more than a friend.

  QUESTION: Well, what was it? Tell us. I don’t know. I’m just asking.

  METZGER: Well, at school, he was a classmate, and to some extent I kept in touch with him afterward.

  QUESTION: Well, in what manner did you keep in touch with him?

  METZGER: Well, either by correspondence or occasional personal contact, or both.

  QUESTION: In other words, you were quite friendly with him?

  METZGER: Well, I wouldn’t say I was quite friendly with him.

  QUESTION: What was the correspondence about?

  METZGER: It may not have been direct correspondence.

  QUESTION: What would the personal conversations be about, the oral conversations, what would you talk to him about, what would the meetings be about?

  METZGER: Oh, just general, social stuff.

  QUESTION: I thought you said you weren’t friendly with him.

  METZGER: Well, I don’t know. I can’t recall specific meetings. I don’t recall coming to New York for the purpose of seeing Ballinzweig.

  QUESTION: And you said you never saw Rubell after City College days.

  METZGER: Yes.

  QUESTION: And you were not with him on any occasion after you graduated from City College; you never spoke with him.

  METZGER: Yes. I can’t recall any such occasion.

  II

  The third day of Bobby Metzger’s trial began.

  Maury Ballinzweig’s best friend, Jed Levine, was called as a witness for the prosecution.

  QUESTION: Did you ever see the defendant Robert Metzger with either Rubell or Ballinzweig or in the company of both of them at any time while you were at City College?

  LEVINE: Yes.

  QUESTION: How often?

  LEVINE: Well, Metzger and Ballinzweig, I would say three or four times a week, at least.

  QUESTION: Where?

  LEVINE: In class, the hallway, we had lunch together, just around the school.

  QUESTION: Did Rubell and Ballinzweig talk to Metzger?

  LEVINE: Yes.

  QUESTION: Did he talk to them?

  LEVINE: Yes.

  QUESTION: When you were in City College, did you see Metzger with Rubell at any time?

  LEVINE: Yes.

  QUESTION: How often?

  LEVINE: Maybe once or twice a week.

  QUESTION: Where did you see them talking together?

  LEVINE: In the hallways, again in classrooms, in the alcoves at lunchtime.

  QUESTION: Do you recall what Maury Ballinzweig was studying at City College?

  LEVINE: Electrical engineering.

  QUESTION: And do you recall what Solomon Rubell was studying there?

  LEVINE: Electrical engineering.

  QUESTION: And do you recall what Robert Metzger was studying at City College?

  LEVINE: Electrical engineering.

  QUESTION: Now, do you recall any other occasion when you saw Bobby Metzger in the company of either Rubell or Ballinzweig?

  LEVINE: I attended two Young Communist League meetings in the East Bronx near Westchester Avenue between 1936 and 1938 in the company of Bobby Metzger, and at these meetings we saw Maury Ballinzweig, Solomon Rubell, and Joe Klein, and we went over to say hello to them.

  QUESTION: Did you ever have any conversation with Metzger with reference to the Young Communist League?

  LEVINE: Yes.

  QUESTION: Would you state what that conversation was?

  LEVINE: He told me that he was active in Y.C.L. and pointed out as examples of members Maury Ballinzweig, Joe Klein, and Solomon Rubell.

  QUESTION: Were there other occasions when you saw the defendant in the company of either Ballinzweig or Rubell?

  LEVINE: On several occasions we went downtown to rallies at Union Square and on these occasions Bobby Metzger, Max Finger, Joe Klein, Maury Ballinzweig, and Solomon Rubell were there together.

  QUESTION: What was the Steinmetz Club?

  LEVINE: It was associated with the Young Communist League at City College.

  QUESTION: How many meetings did you attend?

  LEVINE: I would estimate from ten to twelve.

  QUESTION: What period did these meetings cover?

  LEVINE: Approximately from the fall of 1937 through the spring of 1938.

  QUESTION: Do you recall the people who were regularly present at those meetings?

  LEVINE: Solomon Rubell was present; Robert Metzger; Ballinzweig; Klein; Finger; Rich; Bernstein; Fuller; Roth; Stone; Goldberg. That is about all the names I can recall right now.

  QUESTION: Do you recall anything about Solomon Rubell’s role at these meetings?

  LEVINE: Solomon was the leader.

  QUESTION: And Bobby Metzger’s?

  LEVINE: I recall Bobby Metzger as being a man of guarded opinions, a man of great reserve. But when he spoke, he spoke very fittingly, very aptly, sometimes with a touch of irony, sometimes a touch of wit.

  QUESTION: Did you ever live with Maury Ballinzweig?

  LEVINE: Yes, in Washington from 1939 to 1941.

  QUESTION: Did Ballinzweig make any trips out of Washington while he was living with you?

  LEVINE: Yes, he did.

  QUESTION: Where did he go?

  LEVINE: He went to visit Metzger when Metzger was working in Virginia.

  QUESTION: Did you ever attend musicales at Perry Street?

  LEVINE: I did. In 1944.

  QUESTION: Who was present?

  LEVINE: My wife, myself, Solomon and Dolly Rubell, and Joe Klein. There was a little dancing, and we had sandwiches later on. A string quartet arrived from the Jefferson School, and a folk singer named Josh Moroze. Joe Klein played guitar music, and he also had some records of guitar music by Segovia. He also had a book on music composition and harmony that we all looked at. Bobby Metzger took out his guitar and played duets with Joe Klein.

  QUESTION: Was Solomon Rubell there during all of that time?

  LEVINE: Yes.

  QUESTION: Do you recall where the apartment was located in the building on Perry Street?

  LEVINE: Well, it was the top floor, either the fifth or the sixth floor. It was a walk-up apartment.

  QUESTION: Did you ever see Bobby Metzger again?

  LEVINE: Yes.

  QUESTION: Where?

  LEVINE: In New York.

  QUESTION: When?

  LEVINE: In 1946.

  QUESTION: How did this come about?

  LEVINE: I came in from Washington and called Solomon and arranged to meet.

  QUESTION: Where?

  LEVINE: We went to a restaurant a few blocks away from the Perry Street apartment, the Blue Mill. Bobby Metzger was there, Joe Klein, Max and Renée Finger, they were waiting for us, and Solly Rubell. Maury Ballinzweig and his wife soon joined us. We had dinner.

  QUESTION: What did you do after dinner?

  LEVINE: Sol Rubell asked us all to go down to his other apartment on Catherine Street.

  QUESTION: What time of year was this?

  LEVINE: It was Christmas. We took a trolley there. There was a Christmas tree and a Chanukah menorah in their apartment. Also a picture of Porky Pig.

  QUESTION: Do you remember what was discussed that night?

  LEVINE: We talked about the problem of how to handle these holidays in terms of small Jewish children.

  III

  QUESTION: Well, now, you heard Mr. Jed Levine testify, did you not?

  METZGER: Yes, I did.

  QUESTION: And he testified, in general, to the times when he saw you and Rubell together, or you and Ballinzweig together. Do you recall that testimony?

  METZGER: Sure I do.

  QUESTION: Well, now, can you say as you sit on the witness stand whether you recall the incidents that he described?

  METZGER: No, I do not.

  QUESTION: Even now, after you have heard Levine testify, can you today recall definitely one instance where you were with Rubell? Or Ballinzweig?

  METZGER: No, I
cannot. No specific occasion.

  QUESTION: Well, let’s come to the general situation. Do you recall generally that you met them in college?

  METZGER: Not that I met them. I presume I met them. One doesn’t sort of meet people. I recall them from City College.

  QUESTION: Do you recall ever talking to either one of them?

  METZGER: Specifically, no.

  QUESTION: Can’t think of one conversation you had with either of them?

  METZGER: Nope. That’s right.

  QUESTION: Do you know Sophie Rich?

  METZGER: At the present time I do not know her. I know who she is, and I knew her, but I cannot say that I know her at the present time. I know the person you are referring to.

  QUESTION: Did you know her in July 1950 when she visited you in Pittsburgh?

  METZGER: In a sense. I knew who she was, probably, yes, and 1 would say in the sense in which you probably think you mean it I “knew” her as you put it, then, yes.

  QUESTION: One more time. Now, I would like to have the answer again to this question: Do you know Sophie Rich?

  METZGER: I can’t answer that in the way you ask it.

  QUESTION: Now, tell me why you cannot answer it.

  METZGER: There wasn’t enough of a contact to tell you about her. I think I explained this before. I know who she is. If you brought her in here I think 1 would recognize her, say “Hi, Soph,” and if I had anything personally to do with her, if I saw her socially, I would, of course, say that I know her and regard myself as knowing her, but I haven’t seen her for some time. Lots of strange things, strange to me that is, have happened since then, and I cannot say that I know the person at the present time.

  QUESTION: Just what is the concept conveyed to you in your mind by the word “know” when you are asked, Do you know an individual?

  METZGER: My answer would simply depend on the individual and the circumstances.

  QUESTION: Without the individual being named, just generally—if you were asked, Do you know an individual, what concept is conveyed to your mind by the word?

  METZGER: When you put it that way, the only way I could answer your question would be to go and look it up in the dictionary and tell you. Look, I don’t think I have an unusual reaction to being asked whether I know somebody or not. My point here was simply that whenever you pinpoint a word, at that moment you become very scientific about it, and at that moment the ordinary standards of social contact and the meanings we attach to words in talking with each other cease to apply.