By 1939 it was no longer so easy as it had been earlier in the decade for Germany's political refugees to find refuge elsewhere in Europe, but he was able to emigrate to China where he supported himself with journalistic and translation work between 1939 and 1947.
Those who were or had been active Communist Party members found themselves at the top of the government's target list, and many escaped arrest only by fleeing abroad, mostly (in the early years) to Prague, Paris and Moscow.
He served his sentence at the penitentiaries in Berlin's Prince Albrecht Street and Luckau, before being transferred, in 1936, to Lichtenburg concentration camp.
Through Dreifuss he was introduced to Richard Paulick who operated what amounted to a "political salon" at the heart of a small but committed community of exiled German communists.
[5] Between 1939 and 1941 he headed up an illegal radio station on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party, also carrying out tasks for a Soviet news and information service, while also supporting himself by working in various chemicals companies.
Between 1950 and 1952 he was employed by the Verlag Volk und Welt (publishing house) as a reader on the then crucially important subject of contemporary history.